Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

This is a simple amendment which does not seek too much, yet the Minister of State has not provided me with a good enough reason not to accept it.

I accepted a number of points the Minister of State made during the debate. He made them constructively, putting forward an argument as to why my amendments should not be accepted. I have agreed with him along the way, but in this case he has not provided any good reason he will not accept this amendment. Everybody has spoken in favour of increasing this percentage, yet we know there are public bodies that have not even reached the 3% quota. Why have they not reached their quota and what is the Minister of State doing to ensure they will do so? The Minister of State is resistant to trying to raise that quota. He said it would create a cost or make it difficult for employers to employ——