John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

The Opposition criticised the constructive work being undertaken by the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, organisations which go to the coalface with Irish and foreign companies and impress on them the need to do more business in Ireland. Those organisations are successful in their efforts.

I have attended a number of trade missions since my appointment in July. I have worked with many small companies which supply software packages for security systems in world banks. Those small companies are represented in the context of the jobs they are creating at home. With Enterprise Ireland, they are doing a successful job for Ireland. However, there was no mention by the Opposition yesterday of the facts of the case, just distortion.

There was not one word from the members of the Opposition on the latest achievement of the IDA, namely, the investment of €200 million and the creation of 170 jobs at Merck Sharp & Dohme through the development of a 65-acre site in Carlow. They simply talked down the economy in an attempt to talk it into recession for cheap political gain.

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