Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Pat O'Neill's call for a debate on the beef industry. Everything he has said is true and is of grave concern in the agricultural sector. I support also the call by the acting deputy Leader, Senator Paul Coghlan, for total transparency in respect of section 38 and section 39 organisations which are receiving significant amounts of State funding. There should be no secrets about salaries or other benefits. We politicians have to put all information on our earnings in the public domain and the same should apply to anybody in receipt of funding from the State purse.

I welcome the launch yesterday by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation of the St. Patrick's Day Promote Ireland programme. Some 27 Ministers will take part in more than 100 business events and 80 high level political meetings in 35 cities in 23 countries. As we are all aware, 2013 was all about recovery. We have now exited the bailout and we want to send a clear message that Ireland is stable, vibrant, innovative and open for business. I welcome the emphasis on North America given that about 80% of our foreign direct investment comes from there. We want to see that continued and accelerated. We welcome all the jobs created in the past year and those that will, hopefully, be created in 2014. Clearly the cities of Dublin, Cork and Galway are doing reasonably well but major towns, such as Ballinasloe, suffer from high levels of unemployment. We want to see the benefits of the recovery spread into the regions where employment lost in the past decade can be gradually restored as Ireland recovers from the economic crisis.