Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It works out at about 6%. Does the Minister not think we should look at this? We have spoken of insulating ourselves from the effects of Brexit but surely the real lesson is to diversify our economy. Our small open economy, which could also be referred to as the "leprechaun economy", is making us very vulnerable. The productivity of the Irish worker is off the Richter scale, in fantasy land, something which is connected with transfer pricing and the behaviour of multinationals, particularly in the area of IP. Does the Minister not think that our failure to react increases our vulnerability and that we are too dependent on this? We are even talking about courting more banks and financial institutions into the IFSC when we should be diversifying the economy into areas that would be less vulnerable to external shocks. If we wanted to do that, the lack of capital and infrastructure investment would be a major problem. I am thinking of areas such as arts, forestry, universities and energy self-sufficiency, which could insulate us to some extent from the ups and downs of the global market and potential changes to multinational behaviour but we are doing very little in those areas. It is an urgent task if we are to protect the economy and develop in a sustainable way in the medium to long term.