Dáil debates

Wednesday, 10 November 2021

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:52 pm

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Deputy's point about the need for accountability and metrics and measurements to ensure the objectives of the plan materialise. There are always different metrics used by different bodies and groups to analyse and reach conclusions. For me, one of the essential ingredients of the NDP is human capital. Maybe all of us focus too much on the big, mega-project. What drives economics and society is investment in human capital. Education at all levels is the key to the economic development of any region. That is why the NDP, in underpinning the establishment and investment in key elements of the technological university, will be an important economic driver for the region. The wider skills provision in Skillnet and the apprenticeship programme that is developing at pace and expanding are also important. Then there is the industrial part of the project in terms of foreign direct investment, FDI. Critically, as I said in the Dáil recently, the last 50 years might have been about FDI and we will always maintain our focus on that but the next 50 years has to be about growing indigenous industry to an even higher scale than we have.

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