Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

We should address three issues concerning job creation. The first one is to provide sufficient capital to agencies so they have money to expend and ensure that targets are met. IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the enterprise boards have sufficient cash and are satisfied that they can meet their targets given the capital provided.

Second, the trade strategy itself outlines into 2015 the creation of 300,000 jobs. All the agencies involved in that strategy, including tourism and food, are all working together on an integrated package. We are happy that they will achieve those targets. For instance, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland alone have clearly indicated that they can create 30,000 jobs, which is a significant increase. We can see that this strategy is working because foreign direct investment has confidence in Ireland. Some 850 additional jobs are to be created at Intel in Leixlip, which gives a signal to the rest of the world that Ireland is the place to locate. Ireland has the best labour skills and outstanding operational efficiencies, in addition to being much more competitive than it was previously.

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