Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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I thank our guests and congratulate the Minister on his elevation. I wish him the best of luck in his new role.

There is quite a lot in the White Paper. We could probably give much lengthier consideration to various issues than we have time for today. I will touch on a few of them, if I may. First, I have brought up with every Minister and Minister of State who has come through this Department the idea of adding ISME to the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. I raised it a number of times with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. It has not happened. I know there was a meeting this week. Who is going to represent the voice of small business at LEEF in the future if the Government is not going to put a group such as ISME on the board?

Second, the Minister made reference in his opening statement to balanced regional investment. The Department gives itself a lot of kudos for what is taking place. The Minister particularly referenced a sustainable economy, the strong trade, the FDI attraction and a vibrant innovation ecosystem. With respect to my own county of Waterford and the south east, how do the metrics stand up in terms of inward investment, strategic infrastructure and development? I point out to the Minister that we have had no investment in an airport, a total investment of €4 million in SETU, nothing done on the N25 or N24 roads and very little investment in the hospital, where we have a number of capital allocations going on there for years. What is the Department's headline on that?

On business challenges, I presume the Minister is aware that the costs of public liability and commercial insurance is rising substantially again this year despite the fact that we have brought in the new regime for awards and claims are reducing.

Regarding the business challenges of the Government's aspiration to a living wage set at 60% of the median wage, has the Department attempted to look at why Ireland is such an outlier in terms of where our median wage sits among European peers? It is largely because the salaries paid through FDI and in the high levels of the public service are skewing that.

On energy production, is the Minister aware that the Department of agriculture has produced a new bio-methane strategy? Within that, there will be considerable requests for a feed-in tariff and operational supports. Has the Department any idea where it is going on that?

Finally, as regards our multinational tax take, has the Department any concerns in respect of a potential change of US President which could lead to a potential change in US tax policy? What would we do if some of our top ten multinational corporations were to be tempted to partially or fully return to the US?