Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to speaking to investors about their views on Ireland as an environment for investment, they like clarity, decisiveness and a horizon against which they can plan. For that reason, the Irish corporation tax rate of 12.5% is a cornerstone that can be taken as fixed. It is not the only issue on which investors place importance as they take into account technology and our capacity to measure up to certain expectations, our track record on productivity and output and, most importantly, the real emphasis on the talent pool. The world is changing at bewildering speed with nanotechnology, robotics, genetics, biotechnology and other areas, so the bar being set higher in an international context is always measured up to by young Irish. I have seen this personally when I visit places like Microsoft, Intel, Dell or EMC. People have extraordinary vision as to where the next wave of investment and employment will happen. The areas of tax, track record, technology and talent are the considerations sold to potential investors by the IDA. When speaking to investors, whom I meet pretty regularly, I know they are extraordinarily committed to what they find here when they set up companies in the country. It is an important issue.

Ms Lagarde and I discussed the question of Ireland's exit from the programme.

Clearly that is not going to be just a black and white cut where we exit the programme and fly on our own. The discussions the Minister for Finance is having now are concerned with the contingency operations that will be made available in the event some international shock happens with a direct impact on Ireland. It is not just a clean cut where we are in a programme one day and out of it the next day. This is part of the discussion that is taking place at the ECOFIN meeting and with the IMF. The Minister for Finance was in Washington in the past fortnight speaking to the second in command at some length about this and other issues.

The point is well made on deficit reduction. We are still borrowing more than €1 billion per month to pay public salaries and hopefully the discussions now taking place between the Labour Relations Commission and the trade unions might result in some progress being made in view of the fact that the Government has a requirement for an extra €300 million in savings this year. The Deputy rightly points out the continuing trend of reduced borrowing by the country, which is critical to get us back on the path to recovery. It is difficult for people but the prize is great at the end.

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