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

I think the Deputy really is letting ideology run away with her. The total sum that my Department disperses is €500 million. This compares to a welfare budget of €20 billion, an education budget of €8 billion and the health budget of €13 billion. We are not engaged in substantial corporate welfare in any sense of the term. Any of the money we disperse is tightly accounted for. It is based on criteria, namely, the capacity of those companies to grow and deliver results. Often it is linked to delivery of results. In other words, if there is support, it is connected. It is all focused on commitments made by the companies which are closely monitored by development advisers of the companies.

This is a strategy to support an export-led recovery and the evidence is there to support it. Irish-owned companies have had double-digit export growth in each of the past four years. We have succeeded in attracting substantial and ambitious companies to use Ireland as their base to grow in Europe. They believe we have a good business environment in which they can grow. That is the nature of our policy. Any objective assessment of our policy would say that it is successful, focused, transparent and accountable.

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