Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

-----but not with absentee landlords or multinationals corporations, which would be the modern analogy, there is a potential for a win-win situation.

Foreign direct investment, if managed in a transparent way and in partnership with local communities and respecting local traditions and land rights, as the Deputy correctly pointed out, is quite possibly a real tool for development. Ireland benefited enormously from foreign direct investment. The arguments now being correctly put forward and the fears and concerns being raised were also raised when major foreign direct investment began to take place in this country. There was a question as to whether we would be taken over by foreign multinationals. Our experience on the whole has been very welcome.

I do not believe it to be the Trojan horse the Deputy portrays but I understand there are certain possibilities of exploitation contained in that Trojan horse.

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