Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I appreciate the words spoken by the Minister of State and compliment him on the talent and verve with which he expressed them. My daughter told me she was impressed by his attention to detail during his recent visit to France where he reminded his audience that Ireland has a 12.5% corporation tax rate.

We also need to remind ourselves that while there are failures in boom times, there are successes in tough times because there is a serious danger that we will talk ourselves into believing that this is not the case. I was impressed, too, by the Minister of State's comments on utilising St. Patrick's Day. A Japanese person told me some years ago that Japan would make full use of a brand such as St. Patrick's Day if it had one. We should not be shy about using our national day to secure banner headlines for Ireland around the world. We should also remind the world of our reputation as a creative people. It had not dawned on me previously that the Riverdance show is a good example of how one can bring Ireland to the attention of those who do not know anything about this country. The other day, I spoke to someone who had just returned from China and was very impressed with the Irish stand at the World Expo.

What is the best way for governments to boost innovation? At a recent conference, the OECD urged investment in education, research and knowledge supporting infrastructure such as broadband, Internet networks and smart electricity grids. The point was made that skimping on these areas when money is tight, as is the case in Ireland at present, will cause growth to suffer in the long term. To take broadband as an example, I read about a customer's complaint about Eircom. It should be noted that the company does not even have a national broadband network and where a service is available, it costs approximately €45 per month. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, Sky offers a combined television, telephone and broadband connection with free national and telephone calls for £16 per month. Ireland still has a long distance to travel in the area of broadband. To use the term "smart economy" without having a national broadband infrastructure in place is to engage in wishful thinking. We must concentrate on this area.

The OECD has also urged countries to adopt a number of other original ideas to expand innovation. For instance, it suggests that governments should not merely encourage the supply of innovation, for example, by funding research, but also try to stimulate demand. After all, economies benefit not from the invention of new products or services but from their diffusion, that is, from developing them. In countries that are good at commercialising good ideas, for instance, the United States and Norway, even newly founded firms coin valuable intellectual property.

If governments want growth in clean technology, they should put a price on environmental externalities such as carbon rather than coddle pet technologies. Public procurement rules that favour green products spur the market. Another suggestion is to open domestic research programmes to foreign firms as this enables countries to take advantage of bright ideas from abroad.

I heard recently of an interesting idea from Mr. John Kao, the founder of the Institute for Large Scale Innovation. Mr. Kao advocates the use of government prizes and contests to encourage breakthroughs on social ills. We are all aware of the success of the Your Country, Your Call competition, a prize to encourage new business which benefits society as a whole. Mr. Kao's proposal is a worthwhile one to consider.

While we in Ireland often refer to large companies such as Microsoft, we are not attracting or procuring innovative and new products. Let us take the example of Taiwan, the home of many of the world's largest makers of computers and associated hardware. Taiwanese companies produce more than 50% of all chips, almost 70% of computer displays and more than 90% of all portable computers in the world. The country's computer manufacturer, Acer, surpassed Dell last year to become the world's second biggest maker of personal computers.

The OECD encourages governments to rethink their policies in light of globalisation and the information economy. It notes that intangibles such as knowledge networks and open business models now make up much of the value of firms in rich countries and that many companies produce profitable innovations with little or no research in-house. For example, while most of the research behind the iPod and iPhone was done by other firms, Apple reaped the huge profits from its skill in design, systems integration and marketing. The economic benefit of innovation comes to those economies that develop the new idea, rather than those which produced it. This is an interesting point and one which people tend to overlook.

While it is extremely difficult to compete with countries such as Taiwan, we can take advantage of existing innovation. We must welcome innovation to our market. The barriers to access for customers - I refer to overly strict consumer protection laws, retailing regulations etc. - directly impact on the rewards for innovation. Protectionism at our borders, including rules designed to boost national champions, keeps out new ideas and products and the valuable fruit they can yield. We could easily fall into a trap of over-regulation, in the same way we did with the banks which took advantage of under-regulation. We cannot hinder all businesses just because the banks went wild. If we indulge in protectionism, we will keep out new ideas and companies. We need such companies to invest in technology. There is also a need for competition to flourish. The Government should be seeking to set standards and, overall, encouraging those with new ideas to come to Ireland.

We must also reconsider our approach to bankruptcy. If a person is declared bankrupt, the restrictions applied become a millstone around his or her neck for the next 12 years. I accept that discussions are taking place to change the position in this regard. In England and Wales one can be bankrupt for as little as 12 months. If Alan Sugar, Richard Branson or Donald Trump had gone bankrupt in Ireland, they would not have been in a position to create new businesses, take new risks or succeed on a larger scale. I was asked to write the foreword to a book on F. W. Woolworth which is due to be published next month. Mr. Woolworth's story is extremely interesting, particularly when one considers that he was declared bankrupt on three occasions before eventually succeeding. We must give people at least some chance of getting out of bankruptcy and, perhaps, paying their debts at a later stage. Those who are owed money will state this is not acceptable, but we must find a way around the difficulties involved. A healthy balance must be struck. It is essential that we take chances and do not regard as a failure somebody who has a go and does not succeed on the first occasion. I hate the fact that such persons are condemned forever. We should be willing to recognise that there will be entrepreneurs who will have failures and be prepared to give them another chance to succeed.

The European Union has a massive role to play in helping to establish the conditions in which businesses can expand. The Internet is the fastest growing channel for retail sales, but only one in three consumers would consider shopping on-line from one of the other 26 members states of the Union. There is huge potential in this regard. I welcome concepts such as a European "trust mark" for websites which would guarantee the reliability and quality of goods sold on-line across borders. In addition, there should be an end to discrimination against cross-border customers. On-line sales are often hindered by foreign traders refusing to accept orders from consumers living in other EU countries. This is done on the basis of a person's electronic address or place of residence. It is a form of protectionism which should be brought to an end.

Irish companies must be careful in overstretching themselves. It was interesting to hear the CEO of CRH, the second largest building materials group in the world, Mr. Liam O'Mahony, say, "More fortunes have been lost than made by getting in too early." That is an extremely interesting point. One should not always assume that one must be in the lead. Mr. O'Mahony also stated Irish companies should consider expanding into the United States, the United Kingdom and other mature markets before examining the possibilities in countries such as China. The markets in the United Kingdom and the United States are still very big and there is still large scope for companies which establish operations in these countries to expand and grow.

I am disappointed that the document we are discussing does not place enough emphasis on how we can expand the food sector, a matter to which Senator Carty referred. Our indigenous food industry is an example of the importance of research and development. There is, perhaps, a need to establish dedicated food research centres. Large food companies employ thousands of people in research and development. Senator Carty did not refer to the example of New Zealand which is tailoring its dairy market to specific tastes. One instance of this is the fact that it develops products which are specifically aimed at the Chinese market. Why are companies in Ireland not adopting this approach? Food production is a massive sector, with a potential that is often overlooked. Ireland is well recognised as a food producing island and for its food production. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has stated global food production will have to increase by 70% to provide for the additional 2.3 billion people expected to be inhabiting the planet by 2050. There is no doubt but that there are opportunities for us in this regard. Instead of always placing such massive focus on more glamorous subjects such as high tech developments, etc., we should not forget our strengths in the areas of food and tourism. One must remember that it is often not the country or company which invents a product that is successful, but rather the country or company which uses that product to its full potential.

The Government must establish the conditions in which jobs can be created. It must also reconsider the position on our bankruptcy laws and introduce measures to expand broadband services. Furthermore, it must reduce costs, particularly those relating to the minimum wage and energy production, and seek to attract tourists from places such as Asia by reducing the level of red tape. It is almost impossible for a tourist from China or India to visit this country without first surmounting an almost immovable immigration barrier. We must also reduce the restrictions that apply to students who want to come here to learn English. We must examine the opportunities for companies to create jobs and not fall into the trap of over-regulating businesses.

Measures such as those to which I refer are tangible in nature and would assist in the creation of jobs. Instead of emphasising figures which do not appear to add up - I suggest this is the position with some of the figures with which we were provided - we must change the conditions for business. If we follow the latter course, we will have a great opportunity to set the conditions in which businesses can create jobs, thereby reducing the level of unemployment and setting ourselves on the road to economic recovery.

On previous occasions I have referred to a woman I met some years ago, Ms Elaine Chao, the former Secretary of State of Labour in the United State and the first Asian American to serve in that country's Cabinet, who informed me that it was not her job to create employment but rather to foster an environment, in which industry, business and entrepreneurs could do so. I also stated on previous occasions that when I had served as chairman of a hospital, I used to receive letters from the Government each month inquiring as to the number of new porters, nurses, etc., we had taken on. We were expected to employ people, even if we did not need them, to foster job creation. That was what got us into difficulties at the time.