Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not dispute that our competitors have issues too, but there is nobody competing with us in terms of rising house prices and, indeed, other prices. It is not for nothing that this issue is raised with me very regularly. I appreciate the response of Mr. Shanahan and I thank him for it.

I refer to remarks made previously by Mr. Shanahan. He stated:

It is great to see Ireland continuing to attract investment and playing such an important part in the future plans of this global company. Amazon’s ongoing commitment to Ireland is most welcome,

Obviously, in my role I speak to small and medium-sized enterprises, microbusinesses and family businesses. They are probably on the small end of the scale compared with what our guests are dealing with but they are the backbone of many towns and villages nonetheless. They were quite shocked by those comments. Amazon's business model undermines small and local enterprises in many instances. The evidence of that is all around it. We know its record in respect of workers' rights, especially its use of bogus self-employment and other mechanisms. All of those have been well ventilated and reported, specifically in respect of delivery drivers. I raise this issue because I wish to ask whether it is the strategy of IDA Ireland to pursue quality as much as it is to pursue quantity. There are companies that will deliver on quantity - the stack them high, sell them cheap sort of level - but they may not deliver on the quality end. I ask Mr. Shanahan to enlighten us. I refer to the record of this company in particular. I have spoken to colleagues working within the global trade union movement, such as within the International Labour Organization and other organisations, and I know what they would tell Mr. Shanahan in this regard. They do not need to tell him as I am sure he knows anyway. It is that issue of whether it is quality over quantity or vice versa.