Ms Claire McGee:

Absolutely. The way the Senator has presented Clonmel there, it really represents the power of investing in high-quality education and research. The fact they will have a university and a strong ETB on their doorstep is attracting those large companies into that area. That makes Clonmel a nice place to live and work, which supports all the smaller businesses such as coffee shops, hairdressers and food enterprises. It is circular. That is what we are trying to achieve. We can see the really solid foundation of a good education and research system in the regional areas. We can see how the technological university process has been a success for regional areas to keep people living and working in quality jobs within that area. The company that started with one employees and is now at 100 is a scalable business. We want to help such companies continue to scale and continue to reach their ambitions. That company is probably now at a crossroads.

Where does it go next? That is perhaps where collaboration with a research centre, an Enterprise Ireland technology centre, the ETB and technological universities can help those businesses to move into the next frontier, whether that is workforce development or innovation capacity, and to try to solve some of the bigger challenges. Putting a voucher scheme system or seed funding in place is required to help those conversations to move to the next level.