Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is right. A really sustained cross-government approach is necessary to continue the economic recovery. We cannot take it for granted. We must continue to focus on all the right areas, particularly on the competition aspect, as I spoke of earlier. We must ensure that businesses who may need temporary financial support have it. This is extremely important. I will work with colleagues to make sure that the new action plan for jobs focuses on the right areas, as informed by business, so we can continue to build that strong economy. If we want the economic recovery to continue it is important that the Government continues to support enterprises, businesses and to put money into research and development. I recently made an announcement, with the Taoiseach, of funding for research centres. In the budget the Deputy will have seen that the Future Dairy project - in the agriculture sector - received extra funding to make sure that the dairy industry stays at the cutting edge of innovation. On a recent trade mission I could see that in the UAE and Oman there is huge concern about food security. Ireland certainly should be in a position to provide to some of those markets.

That kind of research is what will keep our economy operating very well.

See this speech in context