Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The programme for Government included a commitment to ban corporate donations. What is the status of that commitment? It also gave a commitment to create 120,000 green collar jobs. One of the biggest white elephants appears to be the smart economy document and the €500 million innovation fund. We are still waiting for details of this 15 months after it was announced. When can we expect the details to be published? Is that the area in which the Government expects the 120,000 green collar jobs to be provided?

The last American ambassador said that if this country did not get serious about ocean energy, we would fall way behind. The recent development between Ocean Energy and Dresser-Rand was certainly good news for the Irish energy sector. This is not a pipe dream. Denmark - a country of similar size and resources to Ireland - created 20,000 jobs and exports 90% of what is produced by Danish wind turbine manufacturers. The Danish energy industry turnover was €390 million in 1996, but it reached €4.3 billion in 2006. There are clearly massive opportunities here.

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