Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I shall keep my contribution short to allow in other speakers.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate in the context of the budget and yesterday's announcement from Abbott. There has been very little discussion in this debate of the key tests to measure our competitiveness from a policy perspective. There is a plethora of external indicators and factors that all affect our competitiveness. However, we should be concentrating in this debate on our competitiveness from a policy perspective. How can we influence and change things ourselves? The new chief executive of the IDA, Mr. Barry O'Leary, said recently that over recent months the Irish media had been focusing almost exclusively on job losses. Despite that, he said, we have shown a remarkable ability to replace lost jobs with new and higher value activities. What we need in this country, he added, and it was sadly lacking from the Fine Gael benches, is fresh thinking in this matter.

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