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

With regard to making a submission it is not too late. It is a non-statutory process and if the Deputy or any other Oireachtas Member wants to make a submission even at this late stage they are very welcome to do so. Our industrial policy down the years has served us very well. We have done well in our economic success, full employment, high levels of prosperity and high living standards in a ranking of 200 countries. It is largely based on trade and exports. It is not just about foreign direct investment. People often do not know this but there are as many people working now in Enterprise Ireland companies and Irish-owned exporting companies as there are in IDA Ireland companies. The objective of the White Paper is to give us a high-level roadmap on where we go from here to consolidate the gains we have made and to consider what the next wave of industries we need to invest in will be.

Many of them will be in the digital space as well as the green space, such as in renewables, circular economy and new products, some of which the Deputy mentioned.

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