Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The truth of it is that it will take painstaking work. We have had to restructure the banks to put them in a position where they can once again lend to small businesses.

As I said in my reply, we have had successes in the past 12 months, despite the Deputy's unwillingness to recognise them. For example, in the food sector we have had the best year ever with 14% growth in food exports. That is a sector which clearly has huge connections back into the Irish economy. Its impact on farming and on food processing is enormous. Therefore, there are successes.

There are, however, continuing difficulties in some sectors about which we know. Our banking sector, unfortunately, got trapped into a lot of property dealing and that sort of banking no longer exists. As I said in my reply, there is painstaking work to be done.

As to whether the initiative made an impact, it has. Cutting employer's PRSI and cutting the low rate of VAT has secured an increase of 6,000 in the number of people in the tourism sector. Therefore, the initiative is working.

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