Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I was a member of Kilkenny County Council when we adopted the economic strategy in 2010. I welcome Mr. Senan Cooke because I believe his initiative in the communities is extremely important, and not just in terms of job creation. We continually talk about creating jobs but it is important to keep what is already in place to ensure we do not slide under that critical element where there is no road back. I support Mr. Cooke in all of that.

My question is to Mr. Crockett. I have had this discussion with the Minister, Deputy Bruton, after the TalkTalk episode in Waterford where I put forward the notion that we can let IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland do what they were set up to do because they are the icing on the cake but we must be looking at our indigenous industries in the south east region. Mr. Crockett mentioned some of them but I want to talk about the Carlow end where we have an excellent company called Keenan's.

A down side of what happened in the region was the loss of the sugar industry. We will have a presentation on that later but even the dogs in the street knew that was the worst possible idea, and we have regretted it ever since. It was a very large employer, and not just of the farmers who were growing the crop. The road haulage industry was involved also. Everybody benefited from it, even down to the local newspaper shop. That was a retrograde step.

I welcome Mr. Crockett's outlook that we need to harmonise from the top down. When he brought all his chief executives officers together what barriers, if any, did they say there were to doing business in Ireland? What do we need to do, as public representatives, to break down those barriers if any exist?