John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I share the calls for a rolling debate on the economy and job creation. I am conscious that, in the case of the latter, it is not a question of us not having a certain amount of knowledge. We went through all of this in the 1980s. We could have a structured debate system in which, in or around this time, we could discuss buying Irish products for Christmas and ask the media to be present so they could do something positive in reporting this Chamber. This would encourage people to buy Irish and let them know the benefits of doing so, including job retention and creation.

Now that the property market has come back significantly, it is time to change from our system of tax breaks. Section 23 reliefs, interest reliefs, section 48 seaside resort reliefs and living over the shop allowances should be transferred to job creation initiatives. We have systems in place to do so. As we have the template, we should reintroduce what we did in the 1980s to restart job creation.