Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister predicted where I was going with my reply. The sub-supply chain within Ireland is increasingly important. We saw when organisations like IBM, for example, opened first in west Dublin and the huge number of Irish small SMEs which then became sub-suppliers, not because of a lower quality of their product but because of the quality of the product, their proximity to the location and their ability to provide top-class services.

As well as SMEs participating at the level of common European projects as direct suppliers, there is also a whole chain of small SMEs that could supply those companies in return. There is a huge ecosystem here in Ireland, particularly on the engineering side, which I have some experience of with regard to materials, metals, plastics and so on. I really believe there is much potential there. There is a drive here to bring manufacturing back to the European Union which will benefit Irish companies if we equip them correctly.

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