Ms Vanessa Tierney:

I thank the committee for inviting me to appear before it. I apologise for having to leave early. I must meet the CEO of Vodafone so I will bring up many of the issues raised today. More than 20,000 people have registered so it is not just a couple of hundred or 2,000 in Wexford. In excess of 20,000 people and over 500 companies have registered. The demand for smart working is there. Obviously, regarding the 200 co-working, we are engaging with the 31 LEOs so we are slowly bringing it together. I will mention one thing about skills because it is fundamental. With the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning, what will become key for humans involves our soft skills - our cognitive learning and ability to connect. We are building technology in the background to be able to match people because many of us will have multiple career paths. If members have not already seen it, Abodoo and Vodafone carried out a national survey regarding the appetite for smart, or remote, working that is an interesting read.