Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has quite rightly encapsulated Government policy, which is to ensure that we have restored the economic fortunes of the State to have a sustainable platform into the future that will attract inward investment, which we have seen in spades, with more inward investment in the past year than we have seen for a very long time. There is a jobs dividend from that, which will allow the domestic economy to recover. That is one of the most challenging next phases. We have been using whatever resources we can get our hands on, including investment from the European Investment Bank and others to have direct stimulus across the country in specific projects. We now will examine the greatly improved economic platform we have built to ensure that we have a budget introduced next year that will, I hope, not only build on the economic progress we have achieved and maintain it but will also give relief to people who are really pressed by some of the decisions that were necessary through the economic crisis.

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