Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Skillnet's figures show that more than 1,700 businesses are involved in sustainable programmes while the SEAI has given grant support to 2,500 but there are 300,000 businesses in Ireland so the level of participation is less than 1%. Based on the witnesses' experience, does a more effective tool for mobilising businesses to take up the compelling and transformative change they need to undertake need to be considered? Enterprise Ireland officials came before the committee and said that the ability of businesses to make these transformational changes is the key to competitiveness. This might be along the lines the Senator has suggested, that is, integrating the work of the two bodies and taking a sectoral approach. There are various ways in which this could be cut that are different from what we are doing now. That is my first question.

For my second question, I would be interested in knowing what the organisations' audit schemes are throwing up in respect of opportunities or needed changes that are not being addressed. If a survey of the typical audits was done, what scale of a gap would be shown and what would that tell us about the journey we have to take? I presume that, of those who participate in the follow-up, some do part, some do lots and some do very little. What is the scale of the issue and can that shed light on where we need to go?

I believe the SEAI monitors the performance of each body in the public sector. I do not necessarily want them to be named and shamed but are details of the laggards published? Can the authority give us any general information about those that are not responding to the challenges Government has set for them? What are the features of such bodies and what obstacles do they claim to face? What pressure is put on such bodies? If they have not done what is asked of them this year, what happens next? Does the authority sit on them or force through audits? Does it have powers to compel those who will not do what is asked of them? Those are my three questions.