Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

-----that will support enterprise development and job creation by drawing top venture capitalists to Ireland. It is interesting that the first tranche has attracted 23 expressions of interest. That is the way we can get capital into high-technology companies that are presently short of resources and which find it hard to bank their projects because of the nature of the activity in which they are engaged. The research element must be borne in mind.

A €32 million labour market activation fund is targeted at specific priority groups among the unemployed, and is supporting almost 60 projects and 11,000 participants this year. This is an important point to make. The fund represents a good initiative that marries public policy objectives to private sector initiatives.

Under the four year plan, we will use moneys from the national pensions reserve fund for projects such as the water metering programme and retrofitting. Our low corporation tax rate of 12.5% is the cornerstone of our economic policy. Foreign direct investment supports 240,000 jobs in this country.

Both AIB and the Bank of Ireland are to make €12 billion available to SMEs over the next two years. We have remained true to our ambition to make Ireland a global innovation hub, a country that can support high-value jobs based on innovation and knowledge. It is something to be said for our country that, at a time of such difficulty, it was first in the foreign direct investment stakes per head of population last year. Last year was one of the most difficult years we have ever had. We were so successful because, despite the difficulty and contraction of the economy, we continued to create an environment here that promotes enterprise and jobs and, importantly, looks to our own resources.

The tourism sector, for example, will benefit from a programme worth over €200 million. If one considers the change to the travel tax, which will cost the taxpayer approximately €65 million-----

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