Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The chief executive of any State agency must respond to the challenges that he experiences. I do not seek to control or influence that. We need to have people speaking honestly to power, as has been said often. Clearly, we need to improve our competitiveness all the time.

This is not an optional add-on. We are competing in a tough global environment but this year we have put new people into the field in overseas markets through the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. We are on a journey to move away from an economy that became too dependent on property, which was underpinned by bad policies. It will take time for new policies to deliver results. The 70,000 jobs represents genuine progress and we want to build on it. I have set a target of 100,000 extra people at work by 2016.

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