Mr. Declan Hughes:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. We are at the table with regard to the UPC, even though we are not joining in this first tranche. We need to have a referendum on membership. The Government reaffirmed its commitment to joining the UPC and to having a local division of the court in Ireland. We hope to do that quickly. It has been indicated at political level that a decision will be made shortly. Hopefully that will happen over the next 12 months. Mr. Richmond attended the launch event around a month ago in Luxembourg and got a very warm welcome from colleagues. We will be keeping track and working with all the partners on it. Joining the UPC will be of huge benefit for SMEs in particular, in terms of only having to register once to defend their rights locally, etc. Perhaps we can come back to the committee at some point on it. The Chairman facilitated a briefing last year with the committee, which was much appreciated.

Regarding unemployment blackspots, we are very aware of the dynamics of what is happening right around the country. We work through the local enterprise offices with local authorities and councils on various initiatives. The advent of blended and remote working, which the Deputy mentioned regarding commuting, has changed the dynamics around blackspots. It has really helped and I think it is a contributing factor to the regional employment performance given that people can now work two or three days a week from anywhere. The key thing is that we have those facilities in place. Our Department has assisted in the development of between 80 and 100 digital hubs over the last number of years. There are now around 300 such hubs in the country. They have good broadband and good facilities. They are all part of the Connected Hubs initiative. That is something that Youghal and other areas could consider. We have mechanisms for working with them as part of the regional enterprise plans. I would certainly highlight that as an area with good potential.

The IDA and Enterprise Ireland also work with local authorities on skills audits, on assessment and on looking at potential areas for employment or outreach, etc. That has worked well. I can think of a number of examples, such as in the north west, where we have worked with some of the leading employers to set up local operations. We are happy to discuss that further.

On corporate social responsibility reporting, the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority, IAASA, has been undertaking quite an amount of stakeholder engagement as proposals are being developed and now as they are being rolled out. We are now probably at the implementation stage of demystifying the reporting requirements and what is needed.

Regarding the Balance for Better Business initiative, Deputy Stanton was there at the beginning. New joint chairpersons have been appointed. Over the last two or three years I thought the profile had been very strong from the committee. There is a new committee membership and I met them about a month ago, in early June when they had their meeting in the Department. We provide a secretariat for that. The key focus now is not just on board representation, where we have met the ambition as set out a number of years ago. The key focus now is more on senior leadership, and ensuring we have those mechanisms in place. I am referring to things like grant support for returnees, women who are coming back into the labour force, maybe part-time, who have a need for training or upskilling. There is also a spotlight on female entrepreneurship. From 7% of high potential start-ups previously, now nearly 30% have female founders. That is a really strong performance and other colleagues may want to comment on it.

There are two aspects to the issue of red tape. One is how businesses interact with the administrative system. We are working with a strong focus on digitalisation. Covid was a great spur for this. In our Department, everything around company registrations is now digitally filed. We can digitally store and check everything. Patents and work permits are digitally filed for permits. We have gone through a significant digitalisation process that can be seen right across the public sector. Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used for compliance checking and enforcement. The public sector is making an effort to significantly reduce the burden for businesses. On the other side, we have a raft of new regulations, all well grounded in terms of public policy. As we implement them, we need to ensure we do so in the most efficient and least burdensome way. We are committed to that.

I thank the Deputy for mentioning the open doors initiative. We will continue to work on that and certainly pick up on the issues around training. SOLAS is very committed to trying to facilitate upskilling and training into the centre at Mount Lucas, where work is ongoing on retrofitting. Those mechanisms seem to work well, so we will follow up with Skillnet and SOLAS.

We have had a number of engagements on the Amgen site. I reassure the Deputy that it is on the IDA's marketing list. It is an attractive sight for potential development. There is a demand for such sites for capital-intensive projects. The issue is with trying to find a willing investor. As Deputy Stanton mentioned, the interconnector and the facilities there, particularly with what is happening in offshore wind and connectivity, would be really important.