Mr. Thomas Mc Hugh:

In our most recent quarterly survey competitiveness was second to Brexit as a challenge for our businesses, so it is at the forefront. As Ian Talbot said, infrastructure is also at the top of our list and was so for our budgetary submission. Another big issue for us at present is the potential changes to the non-domestic water rates. There is a high level of concern that businesses would bear the cost of cross-subsidising that space. That is a serious area.

With regard to climate change and adaptation, storm Ophelia last week was a major event. There was a number of red weather warnings in Cork as a result of it. Nationally, there is potentially approximately €111 million in costs to insurance. It is a critical issue for competitiveness.

On the question of infrastructure more broadly it is obvious that there is potential for the population of Cork to increase to up to 850,000, with 120,000 jobs by 2050. Critical infrastructure, such as the M20 and M28, are essential to further enable employment on IDA Ireland sites.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation are relevant. I wish to reinforce the Storm Ophelia point that there is a need for construction of infrastructure to ameliorate these effects. That is absolutely essential. Flooding is a particular area that we are interested in.