Shay Brennan (Dublin Rathdown, Fianna Fail)

The Minister described a number of initiatives. He basically repeated back to me what I had said. We need to focus on the specific digital perspective from that particular angle. We need to get serious about a strategy in this space. I attended a conference yesterday in Europe and the host listed each EU member state and what it is known for in the tech space in one word. For example: Austria - biotech; Cyprus - fintech. Ireland got cloud computing. That is important, of course, but I do not know if it is technologically at the cutting edge. It is more of a service. If we are to get serious about future productivity, particularly in light of the Draghi report and playing our part in that, we need a defined strategy on it. I appreciate it does not need to come solely from the tax perspective; it needs to be more holistic.

The point of tabling this amendment is to put that on the agenda and make sure it does not get dropped by the wayside. I will not press the amendment. I am happy to highlight it and stress we need to come back to this again and again.