Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator. To respond briefly to the points she made, I agree very strongly with her on the value of moral leadership and I believe Ireland, at a bilateral level, has demonstrated to the people of Palestine over many years our willingness to do that. I respectfully make the case that there is an additional dimension to leadership in a situation as difficult as this, that is, the practical effect we can actually have. I contend that that practical effect is best delivered in the work we do in European Union and the influence the Minister for foreign affairs and the Taoiseach are having on the debate on this issue within the EU. There are many other legal issues regarding the Bill that is to be voted on in the Dáil tonight and the consistency between that legislation and the laws in place in the European Union. I am sure we will debate all that again in the coming weeks.

On the Senator's point on entrepreneurship, many entrepreneurs create businesses, work night and day and take personal risks because they ultimately aspire to sell them on. I have to respect that. They aspire to sell them on. These are people who have taken unbelievable risks in their lives, with their families, personal income and wealth, which is pretty modest for many at the start of setting up a business. They do so because they hope at some point they might have an opportunity to sell their business. I have to respect that. It is part of the entrepreneurial spirit that people have. Not everybody decide to do it, but many do. In a lot of cases when these businesses are sold on, and I have seen many examples in our economy, people move into bigger companies, the businesses move into a bigger or sometimes international business, and the people go on to do really well. The business begins to grow even more. We have countless examples of where that has happened in Ireland.

In relation to the various reliefs the Senator referred to, when I engage with the people who avail of these reliefs, they tell me they are too rigorous and that what they are asked to provide is too demanding. I would be careful about putting in place any kind of limitation that provides that someone who avails of this relief cannot sell the business on in the future. We have to allow people to make a decision-----