Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

However, indigenous industry would be far more likely to create secondary industry, given that many of our multinationals bring in much of their material from abroad. There is not quite as much the same spin-off from that.

I saw a statement today from Mark Fielding of ISME, who said "How many more people must we lose to emigration and unemployment before we see some action from this ... Government?" The seasonally adjusted live register figures confirm that almost half a million people are unemployed. The domestic economy has a huge impact on everybody in the country. It accounts for 90% of the workforce. The amount of money that people have in their pockets has such a dramatic effect on small businesses. They are suffering at the moment and while it is great that the export market is looking good, if the Government can do a bit more for the domestic economy, it will have a much bigger impact on people's lives.

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