Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support business and industry. We had a discussion before about extra taxes, which could be a punishment to the sector concerned. While it may sound good and the rhetoric may be great, we should remember that at the height of the Celtic tiger, I used to hear speeches in this House saying we were the richest country in the world and should be doing more for everybody, spending more in various areas and so on. We quickly found out whether we were the richest country in the world. We were not. We should be careful not to delude ourselves and to ensure we encourage foreign direct investment, because that brings local investment, tag-on industries and so on. We need to ensure we run the economy in such a way as to make it attractive for foreign direct investment, for people to come to work here, and for our own people to have a ready opportunity. Remember that we spent many decades exporting our young population, which was a huge drain on the economy. They left the country every year for decades to such an extent that the population in 1956 was about 2.5 million.

We are in a different situation now. It is a changing world and there will be greater challenges. We must recognise that these challenges are there and work to ensure that we have an equitable society that does not scare anybody off and is just, fair and honest. If we do that, we will be doing well.