Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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Will Mr. Hughes reflect on a few points? The Regional Group has engaged with a number of foreign companies in the modular building space. One of the issues that has been raised is the certification of their products. When engaging with the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, they are told that the engagement to get their products certified will take anywhere from one to two years. Will the Department talk to the NSAI to see how it could take so long for the certification to be given, considering they are provided in other countries?

We have spoken a few times about the insurance sector. Occupiers liability is now going through. It will be signed off and that is probably the final leg of the insurance reform we asked for. Has the Department plans to review judicial guidelines on the level of award that will happen in the next six to 12 months, after this comes into being? I am thinking specifically about commercial insurance, for example in the adventure and outdoor area. I am sure Mr. Hughes saw that some high-profile closures were announced recently and events were cancelled. I am flagging that to the Department to ask what we are doing about it.

I will make two more points, one of which I brought up with the Taoiseach when he was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and then with the current Minister, Deputy Coveney. It is regarding the participation of the Irish SME Association, ISME, on the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. The reason I have mentioned it several times is that IBEC and the small firms are represented but we are not getting a good share of representation of the SME groupings on the LEEF. Will the Department look again at allowing ISME to participate? If it does not, it is excluding a large number of SMEs from collective bargaining. It is as simple as that.

Finally, I will go back to Waterford because that is my job at the end of the day. I will speak about IDA activity visits to the south-east corridor. I have tried to engage with the IDA and I hope to engage with the new CEO. It might be known in relation to Tipperary and it is the same for Wexford. I will give the figures for Waterford for recent years. In 2019 there were 284 IDA visits to the country, 18 of which came to Waterford. In 2020, there were 121 visits, of which nine were to Waterford and in 2021 - which is the latest figure I have - of 153 visits, eight were to Waterford city. It is interesting that there were three or four times more visits to Limerick, Cork and Galway. That might be a reflection of where the foreign direct investment, FDI, space is. We must take the concentration of Dublin. I know a little about how the IDA works. I know the difficulties and how it pitches different areas, but a greater focus must be put on regional levelling up, as I stated earlier.