Mary White (Fianna Fail)

The chief executives of IBM Ireland, Merrill Lynch Ireland and Microsoft Ireland have drawn attention to the fact that the only jobs being created at present are in the foreign direct investment area and already, in the first quarter of the year, 2,200 jobs have been created.

We are in a democracy and, of course, people are entitled to vote "No". If, however, the trade union leaders who are speaking on behalf of their members are not presenting a fair case, and as our challenge is to create employment, being at the heart of Europe will send out a signal to foreign direct investors. One of the main reasons they are coming here is because of Ireland being a member of the EU and the access to the 500 million EU citizens. I would like to invite the unions in here to tell us face to face-----