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

God protect us from those fellows.

I do not agree that there is a policy fault line. Looking at the hard numbers from our perspective, the IDA's performance in the Border region has resulted in an increase in employment of 21% in the past four years. That is a strong performance by any standard. There has been a 9% growth in terms of Enterprise Ireland's performance. More than 600 companies are supported by Enterprise Ireland and there are 77 IDA-supported companies. The region has its strengths and we are seeking to play to those strengths. As the Deputy will be aware, from the perspective of the IDA, we are copperfastening those strengths with an investment in advanced facilities in Letterkenny, Dundalk and Sligo. From our perspective, we are putting down a hard commitment to create a magnet for growth in the Border region. There is not a policy fault line.

Clearly, in terms of cross-Border collaboration, the presence of InterTradeIreland and its success, although it has faced financial difficulties in recent years, is a very tangible expression of the sort of practical collaboration we can build. We have had successes in research and development and in the placement of individuals in companies, with people of acumen facilitating cross-Border trade. We have good examples of companies that, for the first time ever, were able to go across the Border and build an export-oriented base from which they grew more strongly. Those are the most tangible areas. What we are trying to do in the next round is to ensure more of that occurs and that the collaboration between companies is deepened to get it more embedded.

Deputy Tóibín remarked on the proportion of our trade that goes North. He is right in that undoubtedly there is untapped potential there. That illustrates the value of these programmes. That is occurring in the overall context of a diversification of Irish trade away from the UK generally. We have consciously sought to diversify our trade base. The Deputy is right in saying there is more potential for trade with the North. It would be good if we could get more traction on the examples given. There have been some very good cases.

Our move to establish local enterprises offices within the local authorities will hopefully mobilise the capacity of the local authorities. There is a good deal of cross-Border interaction between local authorities. I hope that putting resources into making those offices a first-stop shop, promoting innovation within them and now having competitive calls in which they can participate, will result in new thinking in this area. In any of our regional strategies we are trying to promote new thinking and new collaborations out of what has been done in this period. The Border region has done pretty well. It is one of the stronger regions in performance terms in the recovery period. We need to continue to build on that but to look to our strengths. We have some fantastic companies there and we can build on their strengths.

On the issue of setting up new structures such as a retail structure, I do not think new structures are what we want. InterTradeIreland is a good structure, it is delivering North and South and it has real programmes. If there are initiatives that need to be developed, let us spin them out there. Clearly, if retailers want to form a structure of their own in the way CBI or IBEC has formed one, that is to be encouraged, but whether we want to set up structures additional to InterTradeIreland at this point would be open to question. It is better to manage-----