Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

It is the number one priority our country faces. This body was unveiled with great fanfare but has met only once this year.

I emphasise the point I made yesterday. Our country has a choice. We can maintain wages at the present level and have fewer jobs or we can decide that wages will decrease for a while, hang onto the jobs we have and create the platform to make more jobs in the future. The biggest contribution Government can make towards that is to offer a relentless focus on competitiveness, as Senator Fitzgerald noted. We must make things cheap in our country again to square that circle of falling wages. There must be cheaper professional and Government services and cheaper land and housing. That is how we will square this circle and get our country back to the prosperity it so desperately needs.