Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be doing that next week. My meetings next week include meetings with unions, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. I will certainly listen to what they say in that regard. In my previous occupation I did that regularly and will do so in this role as well. I am the Minister with responsibility for enterprise, trade and employment, not just enterprise. I mean that.

We can change the dynamic and the philosophy all we like, and I understand what the Deputy means when he speaks about that, but there is one dynamic that we cannot change. For a business to survive, it must take in more money than goes out of the business. That is the bottom line. A business might get away with running at a loss for a few months and perhaps even for a year or two but, fundamentally, for any business to survive and have any employees at all its income must match or exceed its outgoings. If it does not, the business will fail. The business will close and people will lose their jobs. We do not want that to happen.

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