Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I welcome the Minister to the House. In my long association with the Minister, Deputy Shatter, I have come to know his style and this initiative has the stamp of his inventive thinking all over it. I applaud the Minister for hitting the ground running in this regard. As the Minister suggested, our recent history has been littered with similar attempts to attract entrepreneurs to the country. For a variety of reasons, these have tended to end up being not quite what was originally suggested or not quite in line with the original ambitions. The Minister has focused well on two areas which will be very helpful to this country.

I was taken by the Minister's recent remarks around Holocaust Day. He took the opportunity to give the context in which this country's record for encouraging immigrants to the country left a good deal to be desired, especially in respect of the Jewish population pre-war who sought to get out of Nazi Germany at the time. I do not suggest the record was shameful but many moral questions arise about the attitude of Irish bureaucracy and the Irish State at the time. The Minister will agree that this was not helped by the anti-Semitic Irish ambassador to Nazi Germany at the time who fed back a good deal of negative information. Perhaps, taking account of the long view, the decisions taken at that time had some validity but I find it difficult to see that and I believe the Minister holds the same view. I have often thought that if the unfortunate Jewish people who were fleeing Nazi Germany had come to this country or had been allowed to come to this country it would have helped to build a strong entrepreneurial base here, such as happened in other countries. The Minister made reference to the reintegration of Hong Kong into China. We failed to take advantage of that initiative at the time while others countries did so and, in a sense, we are playing catch-up now.

I applaud the Minister on his initiative in respect of the visa waiver programme as it applies to those coming from the Far East. At a recent meeting of the economic committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly in London we received a presentation from the equivalent of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, ISME, in the North. It raised the issue of those who were visiting Ireland on Chinese visas but who could not access Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is putting forward some extraordinary tourist attractions this year. Titanic Belfast is one major event and Derry as the UK city of culture is another. I appreciate the Minister has addressed this to a large degree and that those coming from the 15 designated countries who receive a UK visa will be allowed to travel on to Ireland. I assume these people also have access to the North. However, the speaker raised the issue of people who were given specific visas for Ireland. I realise the Minister is aware of this and perhaps he may be able to address it. We are promoting Irish tourism on an all-island basis and if people come to this part of the island, I see no reason some accommodation cannot be made for them to visit the northern part. I have no wish to take up too much more of the time allocated to me other than to make that point.

Prior to his elevation to ministerial office, the Minister, Deputy Shatter, and I held several meetings with IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to try to encourage the State agencies to encourage more venture capitalists, especially those from the Jewish diaspora, to come here. The Minister may correct me if I am wrong but I understand that the most successful venture capitalists in the world are among the Jewish diaspora and are based primarily in the United States. There is a good deal of merit in what the Minister was attempting to do. I fully supported him on that initiative. I wonder whether this initiative stems from that thinking because the Minister is engaging with the various State agencies including Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland in a similar way. Is there some sub-text here? Will there be an opportunity for those potential venture capitalists to be encouraged to come here and establish businesses to provide much-needed jobs.

The Minister makes reference to the fact that he will be calling on a great deal of expertise. However, I note that this expertise appears to be confined to the public service. I have the highest regard for those in IDA Ireland and others in the public service. One need only examine the evidence of the past year. They created 13,500 new jobs. Admittedly, there was a reduction of 6,000 jobs but there was a net gain of 7,500 jobs at a time of severe economic disadvantage. I applaud the ongoing efforts of the State agencies in attracting foreign direct investment to the country. They will play a central role as per the Minister's presentation. However, will the Minister consider taking in outside business expertise in the evaluation committee? I have in mind successful entrepreneurs in this country. I have no wish to name names but we all know who they are. These people have established, created and expanded multinational companies which compete with the very best in the world. There are several Irish-based business people who are patriotic, who pay their taxes in the country, who live in the country and who could provide considerable expertise on a pro bono basis. The Minister stated he would employ further expertise available to him, presumably from with the public service. I put on record names such as Denis O'Brien, Michael O'Leary and Sir Anthony O'Reilly. These are three possible names who come to mind off the top of my head. Overall this is a wonderful scheme. I have no doubt we will have an opportunity to debate the matter further. It is vital that the House has had the opportunity to hear the Minister outline his initial comments and to elaborate a little on the schemes. I presume the Minister has built in a monitoring and evaluation system to ensure the initiative is successful. I commend the Minister on the proposal and I wish him well in this regard.