Ms Mary Rose Burke:

We consistently lobby the Government and all of the Departments on various elements of infrastructure. Infrastructure is the building block for a competitive city in the future. We work under the umbrella of Dublin 2050. I mean we try to envisage what a competitive city in 2050 will look like and what type of city people will choose to live in, work in, invest in and visit. The elements that make a competitive city are very multi-layered and touch on areas of place and so on, as mentioned by Mr. Talbot. It is very much seeing where the competitive cities are and what is it that they do well. When we identify competitive cities they, typically, have a very good public transport system plus affordable and accessible housing. It is no surprise that the business community has identified these aspects as the biggest challenges.

In terms of the tax issues that have been mentioned and whether this is the budget in which to do so, we are very much in the space that it is important to have a prudent budget but, equally, we must be careful not to wear Brexit goggles. Come what may with Brexit or changes in America or the East that influence global investment, there will always be challenges. For a small globalised country we have to very much consider what is within our control and what we can do about our competitiveness and attractiveness as a place in which to live, work, invest in and create jobs. Mr. Quigley went into some details about some of the tax measures, particularly to support entrepreneurship that would very much help competitiveness, create jobs and help sustainable businesses here in Ireland. It really goes contrary to the national interest that we incentivise people to invest in bluechip companies yet not invest in indigenous Irish companies that need investment.

The ESRI has identified in a report that about €1 billion has been missed in terms of investment in SMEs if they were to operate at the same level of productivity and innovation. We know SMEs want to invest in research and innovation but they cannot do so because cash is tight and, therefore, we have brought forward measures to stimulate that type of activity. We need that level of job creation, research and development, and innovation to build out a sustainable indigenous business base that will protect us regardless of the challenges. There is a risk of a very competitive UK and it is already more attractive than us to entrepreneurs. Whether the UK stays or leaves we need to look at what is within our control. Perhaps Mr. Quigley wishes to build on the specifics of that.