Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I did not hear it later. It was aimed at people in the business community who get up early. It came on again just before the business news on RTE. That is how far behind the times we are. It is that easy. Somebody needs to be kicked around on that one. That is a seriously important issue that we must examine.

I appeal to my Fine Gael colleagues in regard to one issue. We should look carefully at the deterioration of employment in the manufacturing sector for one reason. Is anyone regretting this? I do not know anyone who looks forward to having his or her children work on the assembly lines of manufacturing industry. Those jobs are no longer in this country; they have all either been exported or else immigrant workers are coming here to do the jobs.

I agree with the point in the motion on indigenous industry, raised by Senator John Phelan in particular, regarding the low level of growth in indigenous companies. I was interested in the Minister's final comment on that issue. He stated that a large number of foreign companies are now investing here. That is hugely important. There is a lack of doctoral level study and a lack of investment by indigenous companies in research and development at third level.

I look forward to the employment permits Bill to which the Minister referred. It is crucial. We need to be firm on that. We should not be driven by any side of the argument except the need for skills in our economy. Whether we need forklift drivers, plumbers or university professors, they are all units of employment. We must look at what we need and bring in people to do it. There should be flexibility. We do not want to be embarrassed any further by the likes of today's newspaper headlines about the exploitation of Polish workers in the port tunnel. We saw enough of that happen to our own people in the past 100 years. We should not be involved in that kind of behaviour; neither should we allow any unscrupulous employers to take advantage of decent employers by allowing them to undercut through not paying their workers. Everybody loses in that scenario. Unscrupulous scoundrels should not be allowed to get away with wrongdoing. We need a controlled but flexible permits structure that will help us along the way.

I was in a hospital ward today where every single person working there was non-Irish. I spoke to three or four patients who were completely happy. One does not find racism among hospital patients who are meeting and dealing with foreign workers. We have a great amount to do in this regard.

I would have liked to see reference in the motion to the question of infrastructure, which is quite appalling. I take issue with the Government about the slow roll out of broadband. I do not care how many speeches the Minister makes. I live 17 miles away from here and I make the journey into the city several times every week so I can stand up here and have a go at someone when the opportunity arises, as it now does. I cannot get broadband 17 miles from here. What chance would I have in Achill or Belmullet? I might have a better chance in some cases. The reality is that there is no roll out of broadband and we are losing out to a significant degree. Areas which have broadband are in a position to develop. We must look at this issue as a matter of urgency.

This is not about manufacturing industry; it is about intellectual added value. We need to think cleverly. We need to be able to operate companies from Ireland which might be manufacturing in Asia. We need management supervision from here. We need intellectual added value from here. That is how we will win. We should remember that we got ahead of the rest of Europe, not by accident but by a series of factors, one of which was our educational levels. We are being caught out in that now. Yesterday's figures and those to which I just referred about the need to have people at doctoral level are important, not because we need doctors but because we need people at that level to be the anchors for design, research and development. That is the reality. It is not a made up thing because we want to keep people in college for longer; it is a requirement. If we do not address the issue now we will start paying the price.

In the same way as manufacturing industry, particularly the heavy manufacturing industry, is moving from this part of the world to the less developed part of the world, similarly, within a short period of time the top jobs that are currently here will also migrate to another part of the world.