Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I certainly will not. I have allowed six speakers to speak without interruption.

The motion's statement in respect of exports is another example of not letting the facts get in the way of an attack. CSO data for the first eight months of this year show that merchandise exports rose by 5% compared to the same eight-month period in 2006. This is impressive, considering that significant portions of our exports are priced in dollars. This means that the nominal value of exports will inevitably be influenced by movements in the currency markets, such as the ongoing steady fall in the value of the dollar against the euro. This is particularly significant given that the United States is our largest single merchandise export market, accounting for about 20% of these exports.

In addition to merchandise trade, the other element of our external trade is the services sector. There has been continued improvement in the level of this trade. It is noteworthy that exports of services rose by 49% between 2003 and 2006, which is substantially greater than the rise in services imports of 30% for the same period. These figures represent a narrowing of the deficit between services imports and exports during this period by an impressive 33%. The Opposition has not mentioned services this evening. This strong performance of our services trade needs to be considered in respect of our share of global trade. Our share of world services trade rose from 1.24% in 2000 to 1.87% in 2002 and further upwards to 2.54% in 2006. It is a very significant achievement. We have doubled our world share of services trade in six years. It reflects our strong competitiveness advantage in the services sector, which generally embraces the more highly developed parts of the economy. We have more to do in this area and are developing a more strategic approach to services through major work undertaken by Forfás and others.

Last year, Enterprise Ireland clients won €1.7 billion in new export sales. Even exports to the US, with the weakening dollar, were up 12.5% in Enterprise Ireland client companies and, significantly, 24% growth was seen in our exports to Asia. All of the targets set by Enterprise Ireland in its strategic vision over the past three years were exceeded. The Opposition did not mention that in its commentary this evening in respect of our contribution to the indigenous sector. Enterprise Ireland's new strategy firmly captures the importance of building exports and exporters of scale. We are making a big effort to address the capacity of indigenous firms to expand export markets. Some of what we are doing is long term, such as starting trade missions to new and growing markets such as that to the Middle East and last year's successful visit to India. It takes time to build a market presence but we are making the early investments for future export growth. In addition, Enterprise Ireland has opened an office in Brazil to help Irish companies access the growing opportunities in that fast expanding market.

We achieved this strength by a willingness to embrace the continued need to develop and change policies — to avoid complacency — and this remains our policy. One of the reasons I have continued to actively engage with and support the work of the National Competitiveness Council, NCC, is that competitiveness is a core economic objective for this Government. Where Fine Gael chooses selective quotations from the NCC's reports, we are progressing on a range of areas to address the challenges it points to.

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