Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin's entire enterprise budget last year was €30.3 million. Within that, Sinn Féin says that there should be the creation of an Irish jobs agency. We have Enterprise Ireland. When we have a 15-minute intervention from the Sinn Féin spokespeople, and we will have more slating of this package, they really need to start looking at themselves and the sheer lack of interest Sinn Féin has for business. We hear talk about sectors and how this is pitting business against business, which is an absolute nonsense. Only a couple months ago a report of more than 465 pages produced by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in co-operation with all State agencies and other Departments, which I hope Deputy O'Reilly and others read, showed that increased costs to business, especially those being felt due to really welcome and important Government reforms, are being felt most acutely by the hospitality and retail sectors. This is not a matter of pitting business against business. Sinn Féin is clearly misrepresenting what is clear economic research presented by Government officials which shows that the economy is doing exceptionally well. It is not doing exceptionally well by accident, despite what some people will say in due course. However, there are areas that need support.

I welcome Deputy Nash's concerns regarding the commercial rates systems. He might extend that to the Labour Party candidates in my own area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown who have consistently increased commercial rates over the past five years, even though-----

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