John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

They are doing just that. We must not only talk about this here but must have a policy concerning it. We must do this in conjunction with the European Investment Bank and with the banks in this country. That is central to the county enterprise boards. If that encouragement comes from us, confidence can be built.

We have made choices in the course of this situation. Deputy Costello mentioned the trail across the Border, for example. I understand the difficulties towns have in that necklace across the Border between North and South. I was at a conference and saw at first hand the traffic jams as one goes into Newry and elsewhere. However, it must be understood that if we were to decrease the VAT rate we would reduce our take by €3 billion a year. We make choices in terms of our taxes and in the directions we take and the policy we make. Our decision with regard to VAT was to have it at that level. The United Kingdom came afterwards and did something different. We must protect the jobs that exist in the retail area and we must understand that local authorities have a role to play in this too. I can give as an example my local authority the chamber of commerce in Kilkenny. This season they launched vouchers for shoppers to attract them back to the retail business in their own centre. The IFA carried out an analysis of a shopping basket north and south of the Border and found there was only €6 in the difference.

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