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

I thank the committee for facilitating us. It is an honour to attend.

As members will see, we are seeking a €790 million allocation for 2015. We can stand over the value that we are yielding from the budgets the committee is giving us. The amount is broken down into capital expenditure of €489 million and current expenditure of €301 million. Our capital expenditure shows a modest improvement and we continue to make savings on the current side. The one factor that members must watch out for is the 27th pay day in 2015, which may result in a change. There is also a technical adjustment, in that €39 million is being switched from the current side of the capital side. Members should bear these factors in mind when assessing the Estimate.

This is a year in which we can expect solid progress across all of the areas in which we operate. IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland had a record year. Significantly, Enterprise Ireland's net employment creation exceeded that of IDA Ireland for the first time in a number of years. This shows the powerful recovery that is occurring in many Irish-owned, export-oriented enterprises. I do not know whether the figures are presented in this document, but members will also see that there has been a diversification in Enterprise Ireland companies' export destinations. Many committee members have been keen to see this, with emerging markets becoming a more significant player. What economists call Irish companies' export propensity - in other words, the percentage of their output that they export - is steadily increasing. The committee is seeing a strong fight back by Irish companies finding new markets and using exports as a key driver of recovery. We are improving in competitiveness rankings. As the Minister of State, Deputy English, will undoubtedly point out, our ranking in terms of the impact of our innovation spend is also improving. We are showing good, solid progress.

We are also continuing to undertake structural reforms within the Department. This plays an important part in ensuring that we yield-----