Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is not what the Deputy said in his earlier contribution. I am glad he clarified it, because if he had said it, though he is a Deputy for whom I have an awful lot of respect, it would be ludicrous to claim that any Opposition Deputy played a role in the onshoring of intellectual property into our country. He said something I will home in on. He said they would stay here. That complacency is the first step in losing what we have. Nobody owes our country a living. Many countries all over the world want the foreign direct investment we have. His view that they will stay here is the kind of complacency that could be at the heart of how we lose jobs that matter so much.

Let Deputy Doherty not come in here and tell me what I can and cannot say in this Chamber. Let him not level such a point to me. I am drawing attention to the fact that the policies he is putting forward are a threat to the jobs that have been created in Ireland and have been attracted here. I refer to the policies on personal taxation and data centres. I know how all of them are attractive individually but, in the round, they are a threat to the openness and stability that has played a role in jobs coming into our country, which, in turn, has allowed us to change our country. There is much change that we have yet to make but to have that change, we need jobs. For an economy of our size, we need big employers. The Deputy's policies are a threat to that.

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