Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

There has been an increase in our trade to the four BRIC countries. The Deputy's point is right, overall. Even though over a four-year period there has been a 50% increase in trade to the BRIC countries, as a proportion of our overall trade, it continues to be modest. One of the ambitions that was set in the programme for Government was to build on our efforts in this area. To be fair, it was also a target of the previous Administration, of which Deputy O'Dea was a part. We are putting more feet on the ground in such countries. The Minister for Finance recently introduced a tax concession to encourage people to place marketing workers in these countries. They will get a tax concession for that. We need to have a long-term commitment to these markets. It is recognised that if we are to increase these figures significantly, we will have to target companies that are willing to make such a commitment. That is why the Minister has offered this tax break.

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