Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

Reference was made to fiscal rules elsewhere in Europe. I will be in Brussels tomorrow with our business federations group and this is on our agenda for discussion around investment priorities. In catching clearly the global mood around the failures of policy and the effects on quality of life for people as a fallout of the global financial crisis over the last decade, it seems to us that infrastructure ambition is a real opportunity to address that. This is something that the EU can really mobilise around in a commitment to deliver better quality of life, prospects, and long-term economic prosperity for its citizens. We are trying to create that sense of ambition through our business community links. This is why investment in roads and other projects is so important in how it crystallises some of that vision for the future of the State. We are trying to have that conversation in Europe. Many EU policy makers are very entrenched and deeply conservative in some of their fiscal thinking. We are trying to make the argument for differentiation between day-to-day discipline and the investment agenda. We are getting a lot of support.

I shall share some observations on the children's hospital project from what we see in the construction industry, which has clearly been significantly depleted during the downturn years. It appears to us that if a more certain medium-term outlook is created for the projects that Ireland plans to undertake, and if we give more advance notice of the scale of proposed construction activity within the economy, then we will create more competition. Ireland does not have a good pipeline of projects and therefore we do not get some of the international players active in the local market and we do not get some of the indigenous companies scaling up their capacity. If Ireland could create more certainty around the future investment needs and plans and more clarity on the pipeline of projects that will be undertaken in the medium-term, it would enhance the capacity of the construction sector. It would ultimately lead to better quality, competition and value for money for the Exchequer.

Clearly, the planning system is also an issue. Planning delays add a lot onto construction costs. Policy certainty and efficiency in planning decisions can have a big impact on the final costs of projects. Ireland does not have a good track record in this regard. In some cases it has not been good on project deliverability, on policy certainty or on a planning and administrative system that can allow for smooth and quick delivery of projects. There are a lot of obstacles that developers, project financiers and the construction sector must deal with in delivery projects.

On the skills shortages, the Deputies will know from their time in engaging with us on apprenticeship schemes that the business community and IBEC members really want to see this new initiative succeed. There is a lot of passion right through our industry groups and trade associations for this measure, as seen in the initial round of proposals. There are frustrations that it is not happening quicker and that accreditation for the new apprenticeships is not coming through as quickly as it should. In some cases we will also need to have sufficient resources allocated. Having seen the initial bids that were successful in phase 1, and which will hopefully be earmarked for further phases, our sense is that at the industry and trade association level - be it in medical technology, in finance or in retail - there is a lot of ambition to make this new apprenticeship model work. There is demand coming through from businesses.

Deputy Burton raised the gender issue. A lot of businesses in technical, software or engineering sectors that were traditionally male dominated are increasingly conscious of this issue and are well organised in their networks in promoting policies to get a better gender balance in some of those sectors. Hopefully some of the learning, especially from the technology industry that has done a lot of work in this space, could also be fed into some of what we are trying to do through the apprenticeships, particularly in roles that traditionally would have been dominated by males.

The committee asked about the public sector and what role it could play around experience for job seekers, internships or apprenticeships. It is a crucial employer in the State.

One of our experiences in IBEC was we facilitated an exchange programme between the private and public sectors. We got a lot of interest in the private sector. We did not see as much interest coming through from the public sector to take up those exchange opportunities.