Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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Private business is good at looking at opportunities, so that is less of a worry. The worry is how the State will continue to be able to support this space. If a forklift driver in their 50s is told, "We need you to reskill because we are going to put in robots here to deal with logistics and plant", what reskilling will such people do that will potentially keep them in a job? The issue of displacement will be a significant problem. The witnesses' organisations must be looking at this across all the world's economies and not just Ireland as this is a problem everywhere. Where do the witnesses see that going? Displacement is going to be a fact of life. There will be a significant number of people who are not going to be able to keep up with this or who will not be able to create a skill set such that they can replace the income they currently get. What should we do to try to approach this to mitigate and plan for that?