Shane Ross (Independent)

There seems to be great contrast over the judgment on the IDA in the past and the possible future of the agency. I was struck by the difference in tone in the three speeches that have preceded mine. The speech from the Minister of State reflected, as did Senator Callely's, an enormous confidence in the future. I do not know whether that is misplaced but there is a danger about being too smug over the future of the IDA, just because it has been so successful in the past. I welcome Senator Donohue's contribution because this House, and the other one above all, need people who have worked in multinationals to tell us about them as we are pitifully ignorant about that area and several others. I welcome the fact he gave us one or two amber lights about the future of this particular area of the economy in which the IDA concentrates.

I thought it was interesting when the Senator spoke of Hungary and Macedonia because there is nothing more dangerous in business than copycats. We have been very successful, with one or two highly innovative measures, at championing an economy which has been built on bringing in multinationals and foreign direct investment. However, other countries have caught on to this and have found out that this is rather a good idea. The reality, which we may not face, is that they do it a bit better than we do now. They have cut taxes below our tax rate. Their costs and wage structures are lower and they are attracting foreign direct investment. I am not sure — I do not know the answers to many of the questions — that the response from the IDA is adequate.

I read the annual report and the Minister of State's speech. The annual report contains this kind of mantra which we are used to about the IDA and the knowledge economy. I am not certain it knows what the knowledge economy is or whether it is saying that we do not have the tax cuts and the competitiveness but have clever people who are well educated and who have huge skills which do not exist elsewhere. That may be true and may last for a little while but what it is saying is that it is positioning itself up-market and that if one comes here, one will have to pay for premium goods. It is a dangerous game and is moving into fairly unknown territory. We must, however, accept that the old game is over, which I think the IDA has recognised. It realises that the day when tax cuts, low wages and cost competitiveness were the real carrot for bringing people in is over.