Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I must reject that. We created in the region of 500,000 jobs. The Deputy mentioned the 30,000 jobs lost in manufacturing. Like all developed economies the services sector accounts for a growing proportion of the jobs created. I do not accept the Deputy's view that Ireland is not getting a bang for its buck in terms of research and development. It is early days yet in terms of that evaluation. However, in terms of the numbers of research and development investment projects we are winning from overseas compared to our performance five or six years ago, the picture has dramatically improved. This is because of the emphasis we put in our policy and in our investment on research and development and companies are beginning to see that. We are marketing Ireland strongly and proactively as a country in which to locate research and development activity. Enterprise Ireland has been very successful in terms of its three-year strategic plan, which is now almost two years in operation. Under its transforming agenda, this has helped to orientate indigenous companies in the direction of markets that will open up new export opportunities for them. Enterprise Ireland clients have significantly increased their exports. In any trade missions I have been on all of the successful companies have a research and development or innovation or design house within them, which is a critical factor in their success. Enterprise Ireland client companies' exports in Asia, for example, rose by 14.6% and their figures for the US came in at around 13.6% for 2005; the outlook is looking good for 2006 in that regard also.

In terms of the energy issue, of course we work closely with the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. He is preparing a White Paper for publication shortly and we anticipate Green Party support as regards the recommendations and policy proposals that will emanate from it. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, has already initiated tax reform in terms of the property sector. He is correct to phase out gradually, to ensure stability and continued employment in the sector, as opposed to a sudden sharp change, which is not good. People in any sector of the economy deserve to have a degree of predictability and to know there is an overarching framework and timeframe within which they can operate. The Minister has implemented and followed the spirit of the substantial analysis of our tax reliefs system which all parties in this House supported over the last 22 years in different guises, with the exception, perhaps, of the Green Party, which did not have the opportunity to be in power for most of that period. Nonetheless, other parties, who are not in power now, introduced property tax relief schemes in a different era and for justifiable reasons as well.

On the foreign direct investment side, we continue to attract high end activities into the country, not just in the area of financial services, but in pharmaceuticals, bio-pharmaceuticals, medical devices and some engineering companies as well.

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