Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

In the understandable absence this morning of Senators from north Tipperary because of the circumstances, I would like to say that our hearts go out to the workers in Procter & Gamble in Nenagh. If industrial jobs can be brought, as they were, to Cashel last autumn, they can be also brought to a town like Nenagh. It is not accurate to describe full employment as applying to every provincial town. The industrial agencies need to work on the matter. That said, in net terms the number of industrial jobs increased by several thousand last year, as did industrial production. We must not overstate what is happening. Of course we all support the single 12.5% rate of corporation tax, which was announced by Deputy Quinn in May 1997, but negotiated by Charlie McCreevy with Brussels in 1999.