Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister stated he concurred with my analysis that we need to change the politics and to invest more in rural areas and the regions where we have most potential, but that will require the finance to do so. The difficulty is that an awful lot of people find that the pressed middle, or the ordinary worker, provides all the finance for everything. The issue, as has been pointed out by Deputy Boyd Barrett, is that the Minister suggested that companies pay practically the same rate they are charged, but the truth is that is the rate after they have taken into account all the other breaks, which needs to be examined. I refer in particular to the research and design break. It is scandalous that large corporations get away with it time and again. They move large portions of their profit, which should be taxable, into a research and design account and the money sits there to be spent on measures the corporations should be taking in any event. That significant loophole needs to be examined.

If we are to change the politics, we have to act on it, not just talk about it. We have to see the results in rural Ireland. The Minister mentioned the broadband programme. We have been around the mill so many times with broadband that nobody in rural Ireland believes the Government anymore. Its problem is it has a considerable credibility deficit in that regard.

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