Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, and thank you for your good graces in allowing me to join this session. As the Cathaoirleach said, I am not a member of this committee but I hope to be here fairly regularly to make contributions to the discussions. I am a fairly new TD - new to this Dáil term, at least - but I was in the private sector for 15 years previous to this. I worked domestically and internationally. I worked for multinationals and startups. I started my own businesses. I was on the senior management teams of three companies and I worked with many of their shareholders.

For me, the core priority is cultivating and supporting indigenous exporting enterprise. That is the core challenge that is unique to us economically. Nokia in Finland was mentioned earlier. If you think about Škoda in Czechia, there are lots of different companies across the European Union and industries that we do not have. The solution to that is a new industrial strategy, thinking very clearly about what that means and making sure that it drives wage growth and productivity in tandem over the course of this Dáil term.

I am very happy to be here, and thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for allowing me to be here.