Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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To make a general point, if a Martian came in here today it would probably think we had one of the worst enterprise policies in Europe, to listen to what has been said. There was not a single mention of Covid-19, Brexit, the war in Ukraine or the measures the Government put in place. Since four years ago, 300,000 additional people are at work in this economy. Many of them are employed in companies represented by the witnesses. I want to make the point that this enterprise policy has not been a failure. Other European countries do not have that record coming out of this period. That is an important context here. The increase of 300,000 equates to a 13% increase in employment. We have been experiencing phenomenal growth.

There is an imbalance in what is happening and that is what we need to dig into. Looking at the last two years we put on more because 2019 fell, but in that 300,000, only 20,000 went into construction, where the vast majority went into other sectors, mainly private sector activities. The health sector saw a massive increase of 46,000, not surprisingly.

I would like to dig into some of the issues raised to get a better understanding. I recognise there is an issue in getting planning permissions. Notwithstanding that, there are 70,000 private sector planning permissions for homes that are not being activated by the private sector. I would be interested to hear why that is the case. That is the case despite the Government offer from the LDA of substantial subsidies to get these off the ground. What is happening in the private sector that does not see it capable of responding to what is a housing market with exceptionally high prices and rents, where one would expect good returns to be made?

The other issue relates to skills. I have never seen more apprenticeships on offer or more Springboard courses on offer. Where is the weakness in the skills policy that leaves the witnesses’ members finding it so difficult? Is it that we have grown 300,000 jobs and simply the pool of available people is low at this point?

Is it that we do not have the capacity or is it weakness in the suite of skills on offer from Skillnet Ireland, apprenticeships, Springboard, universities and what were institutes of technology and are now technological universities? I want to get more of a handle on this.

Take insurance as an example; the Government has been exceptionally active on insurance. The quantum of damages has been brought in. I see from reports that the awards are falling quite rapidly. There are more people going to the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, where they do not go into the courts. It is just that from Chambers Ireland's presentation it did not sound like it was sharing the problems. It was offering a very strong critique. I am just trying to understand. Does it recognise that changes are being made in these areas, such as apprenticeships, Springboard, and the capacity of our system, and indeed in work permits? We need a balanced appraisal of the challenges we face here so that we can address this in a coherent way.

On housing itself, what are the changes in housing policy that Chambers Ireland would like to see at this point?