John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The last point the Minister of State made was one of the most important, that is, that in his time in the Department his door will always be open for businesses still struggling with some aspects of this. That is welcome and it will be prudent of him in his role because it provides that direct line of access to businesses experiencing this.

I will address a couple of points in the Minister of State's response, which was quite impressive. In 2021 alone ,there were 27,000 applications, a 69% increase on 2020 and a 47% increase on 2019. That does not lend credence to what many people in the Opposition say, which is that this is some sort of a failed State. We are at full employment, we have people who are coming here to work and they are doing that because we have a society we can be proud of.

The other point I wish to note is that wait times have gone from 21 weeks down to one to two weeks. Again, that is down to a lot of the supports that were put in place and the fact, as the Minister of State said, that the output was trebled. That was welcome from the Minister of State's predecessor, but I am very keen to see the work he will do in this area throughout the rest of his time in the Department.