Ms Nicola Byrne:

On the subject of labour and housing costs, I would agree that wages in Ireland are not what we are targeting. Labour costs are driven primarily by housing costs. I completely agree that affordable housing needs to be addressed by the Government. The Government has a strategy for dealing with this, and I know the strategy intimately. The labour costs will continue to rocket and will cause us huge problems as we skylight. We will make it unaffordable. It is almost impossible to rent anywhere in the country at the moment. Affordable housing needs to be addressed in order for this to correct itself, if we are going to attract FDI and more exporters. I believe the housing supply will fix itself in the next 18 months. The Government has taken steps and I believe it is going to fix it. I would be fairly confident in standing over that. We do then need to address labour in turn. We are not trying to get the minimum wage down. We are just saying that if we can get energy, housing and transport costs down, wages will go much further and we will have something to be competitive in. It is all linked; trade is absolutely dependent on having the labour workforce here.