Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The effective corporation tax rate should be 12.5%, but it is not; it is far lower than this. The point is that a foreign direct investment economic model is normally seen as transitional for an economy. Normally, a country uses the FDI model to start to build its indigenous economy. While the Minister of State indicates some increase in net jobs through Enterprise Ireland companies, it is minuscule compared to what is necessary. It has been the policy of the Government to outline some successes, but these successes are small in comparison to what is needed. What is needed is far more energy in ensuring indigenous businesses are successful. The Government can do this by increasing demand in the economy and this can be helped with taxation and stimulus measures and also by a reduction of costs. Will it ensure the slide in funding, both for Enterprise Ireland which has been experienced in the past few years and the successors to the county enterprise boards, will stop and that we will see significant funding for these two organisations?

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