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

Virtually every sector is enjoying growth in employment. Contrary to what a lot of the House may think, Enterprise Ireland supported companies, that is, Irish export-oriented companies, created more jobs in the past 12 months than did overseas companies. Nearly 19,000 extra jobs were created in Irish enterprises last year.

Indeed, the company to which Deputy Barry Cowen refers is one that Enterprise Ireland is actively supporting. It is encouraging to see a wide number of distilleries now being established. There is scope for the development of this sector, which has been one of the sectors targeted by the Department and by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as an opportunity for growth.

I reject any idea that we are not supporting SMEs. The reality is that 70% of the resources within my Department go to the support of Irish-owned companies and 75% of those are located outside of Dublin. We focus our resources on these.

This issue has not been brought to my attention by the company but, on foot of what the Deputy is raising, I will certainly investigate whether there is a way of resolving it. I understand from Deputy Deering that there have been discussions between Irish Water and the local authority in an effort to bring a resolution but we will certainly examine whether a resolution can be found to this issue, and I thank the Deputy for bringing it to my attention.

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