James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

I hate to interrupt but did I see a statistic somewhere that five companies are contributing over 60% of corporation tax? I accept the bona fides of the Minister’s position in relation to other companies that have had a long legacy here, and it is worth referring to the fact that some of the multinationals in life science, and even Apple, have been here now for more than 30 years. It is great and fantastic. They are welcome and they are a huge part of our economy and our success story and we encourage more investment.

Just going back to mitigating risk, though, I feel we are hugely exposed to a global economic downturn and what it could do here, given the level of our exposure. My point is about coming back to how we can lay a foundation stone that will be sustainable economically for us over the course of the next 30 years, given the economic pendulum is shifting further to the east. Returning to the point I raised with the Minister, there is only one flight that leaves Dublin Airport for Asia and that is between Dublin and Beijing. We have no connections to Japan or Singapore or to other emerging economies there, like Indonesia, etc. To me, that represents an area where there is an opportunity for the Minister to engage with the Department of foreign affairs in relation to the fact it has trade under its remit to see if there is a strategic interest in having links between our country and those emerging economies and consequently strengthening our footprint there.