Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I travelled to Athens in Greece on Sunday for a meeting on Monday. The flight was delayed by two or three hours and I did not arrive there until early Monday because the air traffic controllers in Greece went on strike. On Monday the underground metro went on strike in protest against the austerity measures, on Tuesday the buses went on strike and today the taxis are going on strike. I mention this because I was very impressed by those in Greece who were talking about what Ireland was doing and then comparing this to those in Greece who believe the way to solve these problems is to go on strike, which does not seem logical.

I read today that a group of nurses in one of our hospitals is going on strike in protest at the number of people on trolleys outside the wards. While the frustration, hurt and concern is understandable, the belief that the way to solve this is by going on strike is something we must examine very carefully.

Senator Burke spoke about the urgency of job creation. I was very impressed reading The Times of London as I returned to Ireland late last night to see the headline 'Ireland is trending as Twitter joins the growing digital cluster in Dublin". The newspaper article congratulated the Irish Government, stating:

Twitter appears to have spurned the advances of David Cameron and Boris Johnson by establishing an international foothold in Ireland. It will join a growing raft of technology companies that have set up shop in the Republic to take advantage of lower corporation tax.

It was very interesting to see that positive things are possible and happening. The article finished with the following words, which I cannot resist reading:

With low corporation tax and lax controls over the transfer of profits, Ireland has attractions yet these companies create jobs and satellite industries in their wake, and a [British] government still struggling for a growth strategy must ask itself why, with all their talk of enterprise zones, another technology company is taking the Emerald option. There was a Scotsman, an Englishman and an Irishman, and only one of them is laughing.

I like that last part.