Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Would the Minister comment on a concern of mine? Over a period a little longer than two years, exports growth rates have fallen from 15%-16% to 3% and the figures indicate that 40% of the extra employment has now been generated in the construction industry. The figures also indicate that in the housing market there is a significant volume of vacant houses. What worries me is that while our growth was driven traditionally by a strong export sector, with exports driving growth, we are now, as the Minister stated, in a position where construction is predominately driving growth. Is this a much more fragile basis on which to build our economic performance and must we be a little more concerned about the problems occurring in our export sectors?

Employment in export industries has fallen consistently for nearly six — certainly five — years. The IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland stable of jobs is falling off quickly. Is this a serious issue, that we need to get back the balance between the development of these critical export sectors based on technology and productivity, and the construction industry which is now dominating the scene? Clearly there are limits to the construction industry's growth.

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