Alan Kelly (Labour)

I agree with Senator Fitzgerald that we need the Minister for Finance to come to the House. I hope he will be in the House to debate the Finance Bill tomorrow and the day after. Obviously that is a Bill that contains much detail and Senators will be going through it. However, we need the Minister to address the House separately because of the changing economy. It has turned around quite dramatically, something not seen in a western European country for quite a time.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment should be asked also to come to the Seanad. There is one area on which we need a mature debate to try and turn the economy around, namely, technology. I shall not again go through the three components needed to promote this area: education, broadband infrastructure and investment techniques. However, I shall make a few comments that might be helpful. We do not have sufficient incubation services for small to medium-sized enterprises as regards technology. We do not have the proper Government investment schemes in place and I was disappointed by this year's budget in terms of tax incentives, etc. for the promotion of technology. Banks do not give the funding to these technology companies that they did previously.

I have come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny and I believe we need to work more proactively through the EU. The joint technology initiative for embedded computer systems is a very important area because the volume of embedded computer systems which will be in existence by 2010 will be equivalent to three times the population of the world, and Ireland needs to have its share of that. There is a joint technology investment technique within the EU for this area, yet Ireland contributes only €1 million towards it. That simply is not good enough. We need to do more in the area.

I genuinely welcome yesterday's comments by the Taoiseach on the alcohol debate, in particular his response that people who enjoy mature consumption of alcohol can contribute to the debate. He was not against social drinking or anyone enjoying themselves, he said that if one is into that agenda, one is going nowhere. I suggest the Leader of the House is going nowhere on this issue.