Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank the Cathaoirleach. He is absolutely right. One of the key things that will be published today is our action plan. It contains 70 actions to deliver infrastructure. As we go forward, it will be critical that projects that are so important to the strategic direction of our countries are resolved. The Dublin Airport passenger cap is one of those. I visited many different cities and met airlines. I remember being in Atlanta where Delta told me it would love to bring new routes into Ireland but it could not do so at the time because of the cap. When that gets resolved, and we need to resolve it urgently, it will create huge opportunities.

The Cathaoirleach is right about Tokyo. We would love to see a connecting flight. I have engaged on that to try to make it happen. Obviously, we have to prove there is demand but, with the links we have there, that should be achievable.

As regards our action plan for market diversification, we have 41 trade agreements through the EU that cover 72 countries. That gives us huge scope to diversify our markets. We do not have to open up the paper or listen to the radio to learn about how countries talk to one another because it has very much changed. Trade has almost moved away from a multilateral rules-based approach, which Ireland is such a proponent of. We really have to work so hard to try to work in new markets. That is why we did a huge amount in Canada last week. We see huge opportunity there for new jobs to come into our economy. We will be looking at the Asia-Pacific region. Last night, I addressed the Asia Matters business awards, which were attended by a large number of CEOs and people from China, Japan, Indonesia, India and across that whole region. These countries are bringing so much into our country. There is huge opportunity there.

We are also looking at our indigenous sector. One thing that always strikes me is that the top ten Irish companies employ 450,000 people globally. That demonstrates the strong internationalisation of the Irish economy. The IDA is responsible for approximately 300,000 jobs in our economy, of which 200,000 are from US multinationals. We have a lot of work to do to diversify and de-risk the economy, notwithstanding that the US will continue to be a very important marketplace. We will work very closely with the US to grow and cement that. We can see that with artificial intelligence, in particular. We have brought through more than €1 billion in research and development investment this year alone, through companies investing in new ways of working, particularly in academia where so much of the commercialisation of research is onboarded in company supply chains.

Last night, at the Asia Matters awards, I met the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, NIBRT, which is based in UCD. It works with many of the life sciences companies and is putting through approximately 5,000 trainees a year. Whether it is from Canada, North America, Asia, Europe or anywhere else around the globe, we have a very significant ecosystem. We have strong academia and tertiary partners that work with industry to develop their projects. It is a unique thing to have the skill set to underwrite that.

We can do a lot more on what the Cathaoirleach mentioned, including establishing new flights and new routes when we resolve this imposition. As a Government, we need to have a strong, strategic aviation policy. We will focus on growing our market share through our action plan on market diversification.