Tax Code
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I thank the Deputy. He said he wanted to put something on the record of the Dáil so let me do that as well. While the Deputy is right that we should always be cautious about our economy and never take economic stability or growth for granted - sometimes that seems to be the case in our discourse - I contend that the country has structurally learned a lot of lessons in terms of plans and actions from the crash. That ranges from the fiscal rules we have in place to our level of indebtedness, both at a national level but also at a business level, being a lot lower too.
The Deputy's point about the indigenous sector is right. It is still a statement of fact that the greatest number of people in employment in Ireland are in Irish-owned SMEs. This is a sector we have to really support. The research and development tax credit is now being used by more and more SMEs, but making this as simple as possible for smaller companies to access is important too. On AI, the approach of the Government and country has to be to maximise the opportunities and minimise the challenges. I know both Ministers, Deputy Burke and Deputy Lawless, are working on how we can address the skills deficit that interacts with those two Departments. The Industrial Development Agency, IDA, and Enterprise Ireland, EI, are supporting companies as well. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, is looking at how we can train more people in these areas. There are also huge opportunities for the Irish economy, for both indigenous and FDI-supported companies, in terms of productivity if we can get AI right.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26