Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

I am a new Deputy and I will take the Acting Chairman's guidance.

I wish to acknowledge the companies in my constituency that provide jobs. By and large they are small and medium enterprises established by local people who took a risk with the support of a competitive environment and a supporting Government. Deputy Nolan mentioned the intervention of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, in Carlow. He also intervened in the village of Drumconrath in my constituency to ensure jobs were retained. The people of Drumconrath and I are grateful for this.

We must push forward with infrastructural projects such as ports and roads and stop opposing. We must recognise it is not doom and gloom. We are not going down the Swanee. We are fighting forward and perhaps creating more jobs than ever before. We have enormous sympathy for companies such as Abbott and Coca Cola. Coca Cola is not directly located in my constituency but more than half its workforce comes from my constituency. It will close down and that will be a big blow to my constituency.

We and the Opposition must recognise that jobs are created all the time. Deputy Peter Power stated that 1,800 jobs are created for every 500 jobs that are lost. We do not want to lose high quality jobs but all sides must acknowledge that jobs are being created all the time. We seek the big names and high quality jobs but we must keep focusing on local people who are willing to be entrepreneurs and become leaders in their communities by employing people and keeping people in rural communities where enterprises can locate.

I will encourage the Government to do everything it can to encourage small and medium enterprises to establish at appropriate locations in rural areas. I do not intend the countryside to be overrun but people should be encouraged to remain in their areas and develop their communities.

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