David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

Does the Minister of State agree that the Government and the Minister need to do three things with regard to the outworkings of this plan? The first is to set a real target for the reduction of the number of people who are unemployed. The figure could be 14%, for example. There should, at least, be a target. There is no target in the document.

Second, we need to identify the niche areas for Waterford. The document talks about agri-food, clean tech, life sciences and international trading services. I agree with all of that. Does the Minister accept that we now need to amend national plans to reflect that, so that when the IDA is looking at opportunities it positively discriminates in favour of Waterford and the south east?

Third, the plan should be kept under constant review so that when we have established targets and we know our objectives we can measure progress against those targets. The big problem with the document is its lack of targets. I hope the Minister will revisit this matter and set clear targets.