Ms Mary Buckley:

In engaging with our clients we are conscious of anything that could potentially impact on their ability to operate successfully. One of the areas we engage with them on is the carrying capacity of the economy. The Deputy mentioned housing and our clients have highlighted the challenges around that. We fully recognise this is a global issue and there are many other cities that also have challenges with housing and our clients recognise that as well. They are very conscious of the need to be able to house their people in Ireland and they refer to that. One of the things I must say though is that, in all of the engagements we have, it has not actually stopped investment into Ireland. I alluded earlier to the first half of the year when we won 155 investments. That is a 9% increase on the first time last year with a commitment to 18,000 jobs. It is not impacting us but it is not helpful either, into the medium term, to be in this situation. When we talk with our clients they recognise there are plans in place, that we have come from a backdrop of ten years ago when we had a housing crisis and a significant reduction in construction, that we are really playing catch-up since then and that Covid has not helped. It is also important to highlight the focus on Housing for All and the construction of 30,000 houses per year is significant. Our clients like to hear those commitments and like to see they are obviously being implemented as well, and we can see that.