Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was a little concerned about Senator Paul Coghlan's reference to Commissioner Hogan, who was taking steps at European level to limit the amount of competition between the producers and the supermarkets. Competition has been of huge benefit to this country, and to the marketplace as a whole. When I first went into business we were not allowed to cut the price of anything. If we cut the official price we were refused supplies. We need an open market, and we need competition. I disagree with Commissioner Hogan who is planning to introduce at European level a restriction on competition between suppliers and supermarkets.

The question of competition is a reminder of how well our economy is doing now. We are showing signs of getting the unemployment rate down, but there was an interesting development yesterday. The British House of Commons is now allowing Stormont to set its own corporation tax. That will be more competition for us on this side of the Border. It is great competition. We are all the one island and it will do no harm to have that competition but it is a reminder that we should not become complacent. We have to continue to ensure we will be competitive in the future.

I refer to Senator Barrett's point about the suggestion that we take the pressure off teaching languages, which seems to me to be outrageously wrong. We need languages if we want to export, and to take languages off the curriculum would be a huge error. We must make sure that we do not do that. Whatever about mathematics, that seems outrageous. We cannot concentrate on everything but we should not on any grounds take the pressure off teaching languages. The necessity to do that, if our economy is to continue, is very high.