Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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There is another aspect on which I am interested to hear the views of the witnesses. There was a report in today's newspapers from the president of the European Investment Bank, EIB, saying that investment by Irish business in climate and sustainability is only one third of the level made by other member states. This is certainly an issue which is not just coming down the tracks, it is right down the tracks. What are the issues surrounding that deficit and how do we address them? Listening to some commentators one would think the only thing we needed to do was close down data centres and our hero would be free. We need to make hugely transformative change here. I am interested to hear the witnesses views on that.

I must go back a long time now to refer to a McKinsey report which stated that if we want to make an impact on the performance of Irish business then management development skills was the area to invest in. In view of ISME and Chambers both saying that this is a deficit and a time scarcity for a lot of these leaders, do we have the capability to deliver management development programmes? I am aware that Enterprise Ireland has mega-programmes that are Stanford based and so on, but they are for very small numbers of people and not on the scale I believe the witnesses are envisaging here. I would be interested to hear comments on that.

Going back to the point that was made about builders needing a guarantee from the State, will the witnesses elaborate on what exactly that guarantee would look like? Listening from the outside, the Land Development Agency, LDA, is offering a grant if one sells to an owner occupier. It is offering to go joint venture to take some of the schemes that had not been activated, and go into a joint-venture with the LDA to activate them. I believe it is called Project Tosaigh. There are a number of schemes out there to grope towards this guarantee the witnesses are seeking. The number of schemes seems legion. I am wondering what is wrong with them that they are not leveraging the response we need.