Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely all of these factors are crucial. As the Deputy knows, the Government has a construction strategy to address the area of property. After the crash, there have been a number of difficulties in funding new developments. On broadband provision, a call will be issued later in the year to provide for the areas of the country that cannot be reached by commercial operators. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White, is working on that issue.

Energy poses particular problems. There is investment in strengthening the grid, but we have a fuel mix that creates competitiveness difficulties. Recently there have been improvements owing to the decline in oil prices. We have been showing improvements in our energy cost competitiveness in recent times. As the Deputy will see, the National Competitiveness Council has put on top of its list objectives such as enhancing the skills base, broadening the tax base, developing the enterprise base and improving access to finance. There is a range of areas in which we can hope to improve and on which we are working to make improvements.

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