Mr. Paul Sweetman:

To elaborate on this, it is a case of Ireland trying to do what it can and to show companies and investors that we are up for making sure Ireland is a competitive location so their investments can thrive. This contender attitude was incredibly strong in the 1980s and 1990s when we won investment where we did not have investment before. Winning those investments encouraged others to look at Ireland. We have been incredibly successful at this over the past four or five decades. There can be a challenge with success in the sense we can get complacent and see that winning investment is something we have always done so it will always continue. When we use phrase "contender attitude" it is to bring us back to that period when we really fought very hard to do what we could to win investments. The world is getting far more competitive for investment. There are new jurisdictions that are competing for the same investments that we have always competed for.

I commend the work of IDA Ireland in putting its shoulder to the wheel in this regard, but we have to be cognisant that we need to push hard on competitiveness and to win investment. The world has changed.