Ms Mary Buckley:

We engage with our clients across the country and discuss infrastructure. Housing is obviously a key part of that. In the statement from the IDA, we highlighted that housing, planning, etc., are areas where we need to ensure we have the carrying capacity for a modern economy into the future. We have highlighted that housing is an issue. As the Senator said, our clients tell us it is an issue and we are conscious of that. We are also conscious that our clients often tell us that housing is a challenging issue in other large cities across the globe. As a country, we are trying to play catch-up at the moment. We are playing catch-up because of the property crisis. Little housing has been constructed over the years and we fell further behind during the pandemic. With Housing For All, our companies can see there is a plan. There is construction in place and housing completions have increased in more recent times. It is hopeful that there are strong plans in place and we are seeing increased construction. We have received feedback from our clients about the challenges of housing but as I said earlier, there were 155 investments last year and in the first half of this year, involving a commitment to 18,000 jobs. Approximately 73 of those investments are going to regional locations around the country. We are seeing investment continue even though we face these challenges. FDI makes up approximately 11% of the labour force. That said, there is no denying that our clients have commented on the issue.