Ms Caroline Spillane:

Regarding skills, I mentioned NESC earlier. The council makes the point that effective land management requires well staffed and well led urban development agencies that are dedicated to the task and have professional competence to draw up master plans and engage in complex arrangements around implementation. We made the point in our submission that the LDA should employ directly qualified professionals in construction, including chartered engineers, architects and surveyors and that this skill set should be available in-house such that the agency is not reliant on this expertise externally. The issue is whether those skills will be available at the right level and in the right quantities. Engineers Ireland has been examining the profile of those currently in the market who are engineers and those who are considering engineering as a future career. This is an issue on which we have engaged across the construction sector as well.

There is most definitely an issue in particular for people considering careers in the construction sector because of the sector's volatility. There is competition within the engineering profession between the traditional fields of structural and civil engineering and other disciplines, and we can see people being drawn away in that regard. That is most likely happening in other areas too, so we have a big job of work to do to try to convince young people that there are long-term, sustainable and exciting careers in the construction sector that have a lot of potential, involve innovation and can take them into using technology and cutting-edge practices. I do not think young people see that potential at present. Deputy Casey mentioned apprenticeships. We have supported the development of many professional apprenticeships but we feel there should be many more of them and that they should be actively promoted and supported in order that a mix of skills is available to the market not just from professionals but also from technicians and apprentices.

One final point I will make is that digitalisation of the construction sector is, I think, being recognised now, and it is very welcome that the Government is minded to support the development of a construction innovation centre. From the point of view of young people considering careers in the construction sector, this could be a very positive thing. In addition, the centre could support small to medium-sized enterprises in particular in the development of skills for their existing workforce to be able to tackle some of the challenges evident in the delivery of housing.