Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We all share the fundamental principles which make Irish people different from many other peoples. Imprinted in our DNA is an understanding of interdependence and interconnection. This is because of emigration, which did not start in the past ten years but has been taking place for many centuries. This is one of the reasons the capacity to involve the vast majority of the Irish diaspora and avail of their experience, ideas and assistance is being worked on as an issue for further discussion at the economic forum which will be held in the near future.

Submissions are being received by the Ministers for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, and Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, from the chairman of the group dealing with rural development, Mr. Pat Spillane. The group will look at the questions which are causing anxiety and concern and try to address them. This will mean being able to provide access to credit for small and medium enterprises, listening to entrepreneurs who have ideas about making it easier for people to get off the live register and enter the world of work, including part-time employment, and generating ideas for transport, communications, broadband and other such facilities.

One of the priorities for rural areas is to harvest to the best potential what our land can produce to the highest standard and to be part of the movement towards reaching a target of €10 billion in agricultural exports. It also means enhancing basic opportunities, with access to employment and job opportunities being spread around the country. This is not easy to achieve in a short time.

I had the privilege of meeting 500 Irish people in China. They live there by choice and will decide to return in their own good time, based on experience. As I stated, there are Irish communities in San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Birmingham and elsewhere and they followed those who went before them. What we can do is reverse the economic mess we inherited, provide an opportunity to restore our economy to a good, strong and healthy position, emerge from the bailout, fly again independently and become masters of our destiny. This is what the Government has been doing since we were privileged to be elected to office two and a half years ago.

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