Dr. Pat Daly:

On the question regarding the nature of work, Limerick is unusual in its history of development in that a lot of developers and entities built offices or units to order for clients. Limerick did not have a lot of speculation and the speculation it had did fill. It has been well managed in that regard. We have kept in close contact with both the indigenous and the foreign direct investment markets to see what the trends were. Their view is that the office market will maintain and that there is a role for the market and the office. They believe that people may do transactional work at home and that where people are transacting or processing work, they may do part of that at remote locations. However, for creativity, teamwork and strategising, people will still need spaces and offices. The inside of the office may reconfigure but the pattern of office development or the need for offices will not change. We are seeing that there is still a healthy pipeline in Limerick and we are still getting a lot of interest because the cost base is right.

We are benefiting from remote working in the sense that, through technology, people are beginning to relocate to Limerick or the mid-west to work. We have been working on remote locations. We have an innovation arm, Innovate Limerick, that has spent a lot of time putting digital packages together for Limerick, through community centres and new hubs, and with colleagues in the mid-west. That has been successful and our pipeline for offices is still strong.

On the opera site, much of that project is at advance negotiation with some client entities. That big landmark site is moving well and we are on-site carrying out ground works. We are having advance discussions on that. There is space for both public and private on the site, including a new library centre, new innovation offices and maybe an aparthotel. The Deputy is correct that we will still need affordable and social housing in the city centre, including new types of same. We are working on that project as well. It is not a question of one or the other; we need both to happen if we are to reach the target set for us in the national development plan, which is at draft stage. We will see a lot more investment. We have to make sure the city centre gets both commercial and residential investments. We would see everything working together.