Mr. Ciaran Corcoran:

Absolutely. Jobs are not always specific. When businesses expand or when companies come in using FDI, a jobs spread is needed across them in various departments. It is scientific, supply chain and financial talent while automation and various other skill sets are required.

Attracting those people to the region is the one big factor we need to watch. It is always top of the agenda whenever we are discussing the next investment in the businesses. We need to be able to show there is a pool of talent in the area and in the country that will come to the area. This is what we are really trying to grasp here and focus on.

We may have a unique situation along the N4 with the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the Athlone, Sligo and Letterkenny institutes of technology. We have a channel of universities there. In my experience, Athlone Institute of Technology and NUI Maynooth are very engaged and want to support us. They really want to have their graduates working in that region. Given the institutions' locations, many of the graduates come from the north west and midlands areas and they would like to get through college and then relocate back to those regions. We need to provide the opportunity for those people. The Government's recent Ireland Connected strategy talks about raising the college numbers and providing the talent for the future. I see this as a key enabler towards meeting that strategy.