Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I would argue we are doing that. We have set in place the plans to do that through our action plan on market diversification to get into those new markets. We spoke about the opportunity to be found in those regions. We will see boots on the ground to drive more business from those areas. I was equally pointing out as well, though, how much our indigenous base has grown and the statistic, which is again evidence, that we have 450,000 people employed by the top ten Irish companies in our economy. This compares to our FDI and IDA context, where we have about 800 clients employing 300,000 people. We have, therefore, a very strong indigenous base that I want to grow. We have set a target to have 275,000 jobs supported by Enterprise Ireland over the next five years, with 1,200 new high-end start-ups, €2.2 billion in research, development and innovation, RDI, expenditure over that horizon to get more large exporters into our marketplace. That will be very important. The critical thing is that while we have exceptional corporate tax revenue coming in, it is what the Government does with it that is more important. By the end of this year, we will have €24 billion in two sovereign wealth funds. By the end of the term of this Government, we will have €50 billion in our sovereign wealth funds. This shows us how a Government prepares for a potential economic shock, because these funds can be deployed in countercyclical measures.

Additionally, the other way we prepare for shocks is by investing in capital expenditure. Next year, we will spend about €19.1 billion on capital expenditure. This has gone up 54% in just two years. Just two years ago, we had €12.4 billion in capital expenditure. If we are looking at this from a business point of view, it is about how to get the next product line, future revenue and the next service. To do this, it is necessary to invest in capital expenditure, and this is what we are doing as a country. This will really future-proof us. The work we are doing and that the Minister, Deputy Chambers, is launching this week in terms of our action plan will have 70 actions on how to get strategic projects that are vital to our economic success through the consenting mechanisms quicker. This is how we deliver for society and improve people’s quality of life, including if they are trying to get to work quicker and more safely. We need that support from capital expenditure and to ensure it is not being held up in the courts or by the Judiciary and that the Government is getting its work done. This is going to be key for the next number of years.

That de-risks us, as do our sovereign wealth funds and the work I am doing in really pointing the needle towards the indigenous economy. This can be seen in the life that has been brought into our strategy for Enterprise Ireland for the next five years. It can also be seen in the work we are doing with our local enterprise offices, LEOs. We have reduced the conditions attached to the sustainability schemes by around 60%. There are fewer questions on applications. We are working for more digital offerings to enable the growing of revenue. This is because it is about reducing costs and looking at revenue growth. We know there are businesses in this country that will never be the same again in terms of the way customers' behaviour has changed. We must, though, ask how those businesses will grow their revenue base, embrace digitalisation and get the ambition set out in the White Paper into real life and into businesses. This is what we are working on every day.

As I said to the committee, it is important it works with us on our new start-up Ireland proposal. Other mechanisms around the world were mentioned, like Station F. That is a decade old. We need to be thinking about where the future opportunities are. We need to be looking to see what areas we can explore and work in to enable us to grow. That could be in artificial intelligence, with our new office. We also have our Presidency next year. We have so many of the building blocks through academia and working with industry. This is another asset. No other country has the ecosystem we have.

The Cathaoirleach spoke about corporate tax but you cannot just pull up a company, go to another country and have the STEM and ICT graduates and ICT support it will have here. There are so many examples. We could look at NIBRT or at the Tyndall Institute down in Cork, in the Deputy's own area as well. It is doing three of the project lines for the Chips Act, as we now go to revise it. We could look at Insight, in Trinity College Dublin, which is the largest AI research centre in Europe, or at the work done by CeADAR. There is also INSPIRE that the Minister, Deputy James Lawless, launched this week, Digital Manufacturing Ireland, DMI, in Limerick and Irish Manufacturing Research, IMR, in my own home town. These are all providing academia with industry partnership so they can innovate and be at the cutting edge of that huge wealth of knowledge to stand them in good stead for the future.

If we bring all of those components together, we will be in good shape.