Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator White for sharing her time. I welcome the Minister of State and welcome her statement to the House. We must realise that we live in one of the most open economies in the world. Our exports are in excess of 100% of our GDP, whereas the comparative figure for Europe is 40%. This shows our dependency on the export market. Therefore, the recent slowdown trend, particularly in the merchandise manufacturing sector, is very worrying. If it continued, it could derail our economic prospects which are predicated on export growth. While we have seen a huge and welcome increase of 15% in exports in the agri-food sector this year, we must be aware that our important pharmaceutical-chemical sector is slowing down and our computer hardware exports are falling.

All of this highlights the need to concentrate on other markets and the Minister of State has addressed this to some extent. We should concentrate in particular on the BRIC countries, although she did not mention Brazil or South America in her statement. She did not mention Mexico or Central America either, yet these are markets we need to consider. We should also look at Indonesia. We need to broaden our horizons if we are to tackle the problem. The IMF has said that growth in emerging economies will be approximately 6%. Some 80% of our exports go to the US and Europe, but the IMF predicts only a 2% growth in those markets. It is essential that we look to other markets.

This brings me to some questions for the Minister of State. I like the idea of trade councils and of involving our embassies, but why, therefore, are we closing our embassy in Iran? We exported products worth €82 million to Iran in 2010, so closing the embassy there defies logic. We have embassies in many places where we have nothing like the magnitude of that trade. The Minister of State spoke about Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Three weeks ago, I attended the world economic forum at the Dead Sea, but there was no representation from Ireland at it, which was extraordinary. However, thousands of delegates from Africa, Europe and the Middle East attended. There were delegates from many Arab countries there. While I welcome the concentration on Qatar and Saudi Arabia, there is significant opportunity within the Arab world. Given our disposition to the Palestinian cause, we might have favoured status there. I urge the Minister of State to look at that.

I believe the British visa proposal is a good initiative. Will the Minister of State confirm there is a reciprocal arrangement in place so that people coming to Ireland who obtain Irish visas will have the same facility in going to Britain? My final question has to do with the capital programme. Why is it indicated in the capital programme that the need to address fiscal targets will require some retrenchment of funding for research and development? Research and development are the cornerstone for growth. We are cutting funds for Science Foundation Ireland by €5 million, despite the fact that its research is the cornerstone for future growth. If we have learned anything, we should have learned that we must concentrate our scarce resources on areas that will lead to growth and lead us out of the current crisis.