Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Mr. O'Rourke for that answer. I do not wish to be negative but he did refer in his submission to challenges that affect our ability to compete in a changing world. As he said, we must have the right enabling policies in place. We have had heard from plenty of witnesses who have referred to the challenges being faced by businesses. These are pretty much the same ones as everyone else is facing in terms of energy costs, housing and infrastructure. I ask Mr. O'Rourke to speak about the risks in this regard and to categorise them as those he might classify as sizeable and those that may prove to be risks but not massively serious ones.

I also ask him to comment on how housing and infrastructure are impacting on the capacity to deliver inward investment. No organisation has come through here and not referred to the housing disaster, or "catastrophe" as the President called it. Whatever we call it, this is a fact and we are living with it. I refer to the extent this situation is now impacting on our capacity to attract inward investment and for existing companies to be able to expand. Mr. O'Rourke referred to this aspect in his submission but can he elaborate on this point and speak to it a little more?