Mr. Ciar?n Nugent:

I will make a point on construction. I am sure Mr. McDonnell has some comments on the wider issue. We are hearing that we are almost at full employment. We have more people employed than ever before but still, apparently, construction cannot find workers. In Ireland, obviously, we know the sector is inherently unstable and it is not very attractive.

We know that through the financial crisis, higher education was beneficial. The people who really felt the brunt were those with lower levels of skills or education; not lower levels but with less time having gone into their education in places like construction in particular. Aside from that, the working conditions of the workers in that sector never came back from 2007.

Bogus self-employment is a big issue. Apprenticeship rates at 16 or 17 years of age are below the minimum wage. They are sometimes half the minimum wage now, although not quite.