Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ireland is a small, peripheral, island nation on the edge of Europe. In order to attract investment, a lot of guile and ingenuity are required. The facts that 100,000 people are directly employed in FDI companies in this country and that we can attract and retain FDI companies comprise a remarkable testament to the stability of our country, taxation system and legal system. One of the multinationals to which the Deputies opposite have such an aversion actually invested €1 billion in the Irish economy last year. It was not expenditure on salaries or taxation but an investment in the economy.

It is a huge sum of money. I do not think we have even one Irish-based enterprises that could come up with that sort of investment within the economy. That is just one multinational.

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