Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

If Deputy Connaughton has something to say in the course of the day, I will be glad to hear it. In the meantime, under this procedure, I am entitled to make these points.

We must do everything possible to maintain jobs in the economy and I assure the House we can and will do so. However, we cannot delude ourselves that not trying to stabilise the public finances would in some way keep more jobs in the economy. Such an approach would have the opposite effect. We must stabilise the public finances, continue with the capital investment programme to build competitiveness for the future and seek reductions in costs, as is being done in the area of labour and enterprise costs and will also happen in the area of electricity costs and energy prices. Work must also be done on what enterprise supports can be provided for start-up businesses.

On Waterford Crystal, we have been working on this issue for some time. The issue is that an investor is needed to provide a viable plan and capital to ensure business can continue in Waterford and Ireland. This is our objective but private investment will be needed to achieve it. I am glad an investor has arrived and I hope the receiver will listen attentively to what this investor has to say. I also hope the outcome will be the choice of those who want to continue with employment in Waterford rather than those who simply want to take the brand and generate the product elsewhere. The House is united in this hope and in trying to see in what way it can be realised. The Government, through the enterprise agencies, stands ready to assist any viable programme that may come forward which is consistent with us being able to assist. That is the position and there is no split in the House on the matter.

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