David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's response was underwhelming. She did not deal with most of my points, including that on state aid rules. She stated that the Commissioner was aware that Ireland faced challenges and gave her assurances, but we need more than assurances from Brussels and the Commissioner. For a long time, we were told by the Tánaiste and other Ministers that a suite of bespoke solutions would be made available to this State beyond what would be available to other member states, as they would not be as adversely affected economically as us, given the close relationship between the Irish and British economies and how we are more exposed than any other member state. Nothing in these provisions strays outside of current state aid rules. There is no additionality that any other member state is unable to avail of.

The Minister is living in cloud cuckoo land if she believes that the different sectoral groups in the business community view the supports in place as adequate for a hard crash. We have met the groups as well. We have presented our proposals, which have been well received. The groups have sought significant changes to state aid rules. They recognise that we must increase capital spending at ports-----

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