John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. Cork is a perfect example. I was just going to come to it. The centres of employment in County Cork - Ringaskiddy, Little Island, Cork Airport Business Park - are magnets for inward investment. It is often too easy to think of inward investment as just being money. It is also skill, expertise, innovation, enterprise and everything. The energy that foreign direct investment brings is as important as the money. It helps us foster our own national and local industry in these areas.

Considering the dynamism of Cork County Council, for instance, which is soon to be happily merged with Cork City Council - I suppose we will leave that issue for another day - the county manager has proposed plans for the development of a science and technology park adjacent to Cork Institute of Technology. It is a 50 or 60 acre site which is ready for development. Cork is bursting with energy to attract this sort of thing.

It is great to see someone like the Minister of State, Deputy English, who is equally bursting with this energy and dynamism. The amount of money he is pursuing is enormous. He is setting a target of €1.25 billion, which represents maybe 2.5% of the entire fund for the whole of Europe, of which Ireland's population constitutes about 1%. Senator Ó Domhnaill said that we punch above our weight and he is right, although it is not often I would agree with him.

I welcome the document. Its aims are excellent science, industrial leadership and societal challenges. What could be more important? These are the three key concepts of modern living which Ireland wants to put to the fore in its international, investment and labour policies. I wish the Minister of State well in continuing the good work he is doing here. We look forward to achieving even better results in the coming years.