Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and commend him on his appearance last night on "Prime Time" and his defence and support of Government policy. He is doing tremendous work in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation. I was in the same Department for four years. His work is not recognised, unfortunately, and he will probably get no recognition in his constituency for the amount of work he is doing at home and abroad. He has made a great impact on trade delegations throughout the world. I understand he was in Russia recently. I congratulate him on the opportunities he is opening for a lot of people.

The motion is quite interesting. I commend the Opposition for putting ideas and thoughts together in a coherent manner. I am confident that, even though we have an alternative motion, if it was worded in a more careful manner there would be nothing which we could not support. It is not possible to accept some parts of it at this stage. I recommend to the Minister of State and the Department that I would have no hesitation in borrowing and using any part of the motion which is worthwhile in order to stimulate employment.