Ms Louise Allen:

I wish to make a quick point regarding labourers in the UK. An initiative of Irish Design 2015 and the Irish Architecture Foundation is to develop a series of talks entitled "We Built this City". This programme looks back at how Irish labourers contributed to building the fabric of so many cities worldwide. My colleague, Karen Hennessy, met with Members of the Houses of Parliament whose parents and grandparents had contributed to building the fabric of London and they are interested in hosting an exhibition there. Similarly, in New York and Chicago there are stories we hope to be able to tell and communicate.

On emigration, we have a richness in terms of our diaspora, with over 80 million of us worldwide. This is evident when attending international events. We intend to launch an initiative known as the global Irish design challenge, to challenge designers worldwide to present us with their vision for a future Ireland and for a future strategy for Ireland.