John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)

I have almost finished.

One must not forget that each year, the multinationals take €32 billion in profit out of the country. I refer to the likes of Tesco, Aldi and so on. Do they not owe the country anything? Why is there no initiative whereby they could invest some money in the country to create employment? Have such companies not been approached to suggest that instead of employing part-time workers, who may still be in receipt of social welfare benefit, they might invest some money? As they are making a bloody good living out of Ireland, could they not leave a few billion or a few hundred million euros or whatever to create employment? This is the kind of initiative that is not being put forward.

My final point pertains to procurement and the national procurement policy introduced by the Fianna Fáil-led Government in 2002. I refer to tenders in locations such as Waterford, Cork, Dublin and so on and how people now are being forced out of business because of the obligation to tender outside the country. For example, although a Dublin company got it this year, I refer to a French company that at one stage last year-----

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