Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I ask the Deputy Leader to find time in the coming session for a debate on the annual competitiveness report. This is very pertinent having listened to Senators Ó Murchú, O'Reilly and Wilson talking about the retention of jobs. The jobs will not be retained unless we are competitive and the report published this week is worthy of a debate here. If we are to succeed in increasing jobs, they will not be jobs that will be created but jobs that will develop because we are competitive. We will need to depend on being able to compete with others. In recent months I have gone around the country and met owners of small and medium-sized enterprises who are determined to survive despite having a very tough job. Particularly with the bad weather of recent weeks a number of hotels, restaurants and shops will have considerable difficulty in surviving. However, the way for them to survive is through being competitive. We will not be able to solve our problems by creating jobs; we will solve them by being competitive and the jobs themselves will come from there. Let us have a debate on the report on the National Competitiveness Council, which contains proposals on which we can take action immediately.