Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. Senator Mullen's contribution is one that we have a debate on in this House, to address the future of how we will pay. Some live in the land of milk and honey and therein lies part of our difficulty. Others of us live in the land of realism and recognise that we have rightly spent and borrowed billions of euro to support SMEs and workers. I would love to have an ideological question addressed by Members opposite, in particular, who will go to social media platforms with clips of all of us which they will use erroneously to further their own aims. That is a disgrace. No Government has ever had to face the pandemic that we have had. That is why it is important that we recognise the importance of a focus on small and medium enterprises which, as Senator O'Loughlin said, are at the heart of how our society and economy develops. These are entrepreneurs who we know in our own communities.

I welcome this debate and the fact that today, as announced by IDA Ireland, foreign direct investment is close to pre-pandemic levels. That is a vote of confidence in our country, our people, and our goods, services and products.Today, the Government announced a new pathways to work strategy to bring 75,000 people back into the workforce again. That is positive.

Senator Mullen is no longer here but I remind him that we are the pro-enterprise, pro-jobs party. We are the party that believes in rewarding work, enterprise and equality of opportunity. In the past 15 or 16 months we have taken decisions to underpin support to our businesses and those who work in our economy and our country.

I will comment on our reimagined cities and towns. We have seen, for example, 17 streets pedestrianised in the city of Cork, where I am. It gives us a new type of city. It is the biggest ever investment under the urban regeneration and development fund in Cork city. I invite the Minister of State and the Ministers, Deputies Paschal Donohoe and Michael McGrath, to visit parts of Cork city where we can be imaginative in incentivising developers, local authority and private citizens including those on the social housing list to buy, rent and do up old properties so we have regeneration, re-gentrification and re-living in our cities and towns.

We must ensure we do not go back to the old ways. It is not the Minister of State's Department and it is slightly askew from this debate but Senator Casey will agree, I hope, that it is critical we do not miss the deadline for the Covid digital certification. Our tourism and hospitality sector require and deserve our Government to be ready.

I will yield my time to Senator Cummins but I remind Senator Mullen, who is back, that the Fianna Fáil Party is the pro-jobs, pro-small and medium enterprise party and nobody else will ever assume that mantle and deliver like we have done and will continue to do.