First, for my last contribution and much like Deputy Bruton, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his great work. I thank Mr. Peter Finnegan and all the team for looking after us as Deputies and Ministers from all sides of the House and always in a very balanced way. No matter what level of service you look for in this House and no matter what angle it is, we are all treated equally which is the way it should be and again, part of the service we provide to our communities is enhanced by all the team here and the many le…

We did not introduce it. The Deputy should check the record on that.

We will do it eventually.

I welcome the changes to the USC and the tax bands. Contrary to the opinion that the higher rate of tax kicks in too late for some, we have to recognise, as Deputy Ó Cuív mentioned, that we are in a constant competition for talent and if our taxes on jobs are too high, we will lose jobs. I have listened to debates here inside out and upside since 2011 on the tax policy of the three governments since then. The recognition that the approach has been right is shown in today's employment statistics, which show the guts…

No, it has not. That is not factually true.

That is not true. Check your percentages. Go back to your percentages.

Go with your percentages.

Sinn Féin wants to cancel the schemes. It wants to cancel the two most important schemes.

Explain your two schemes.

No, I was referring to people from here.

Sinn Féin wanted to build fewer houses. Bear that in mind.

Has Michael solutions to all this?

I offer sympathies to Finola, Emily, Matthew, Juliana, Mary-Elizabeth, our colleague Deputy Richard Bruton, and John's sister, Mary. Their loss is massive, but this is also a major loss for all of us. John was a big man in many ways and the impact he has had on all of us in the House is immense. For anybody who comes into politics, it is about making an impact and leaving a mark. John Bruton has left that in many parts of the world and Ireland, and certainly at home with his own family, a family he was so proud of.…

I do.

There is no guillotine.

I echo the Minister of State's comments about the great work that is happening in the Department of Rural and Community Development. Today, the focus is on rural development and future-proofing rural Ireland. That has really been achieved through the policy document and Our Rural Future. It is having the desired impact. We have been here, over the years, with different policy launches and different programmes and initiatives, trying to bring together and drive action locally and focus the money. This document and t…

I think we will save Carlow's retailers after this. This is an important and ongoing debate in the European Parliament and other parts of Europe as well. I certainly do not want to confuse the situation over Christmas. It is not an issue to which we are signed up as yet in any shape or form. I will get the Deputy a briefing note on it but it is not an issue of concern at this moment.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue again. I will go back over the information we have. Following the dissolution of the county enterprise boards in 2014, an enhanced national assistance enterprise model was established to be delivered by local authorities on behalf of Enterprise Ireland through the local enterprise offices, LEOs. This structure has allowed the LEOs to effectively deliver national programmes that are aligned with enterprise policy and designed and overseen by the centre of excellence in Enter…

We have discussed some of the issues the Deputy has raised previously. We certainly discussed them at the SME task force that the Tánaiste set up over two years ago to focus and see if we need another agency or if we can reach the companies we want to reach through our existing structures. Our best estimate is that it is best to use the structures we have that have worked extremely well, including IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs that are reaching all those companies. We must try to use those structures…

It is important that we use the centre-of-excellence approach, which shares the data across the various LEOs and is able to compare them. There is that advice and guidance through the LEOs as well. Having visited all the LEOs, I saw the great work they are doing at first hand. While each LEO administers the national schemes and the schemes we have all agreed, they have their own version of the schemes as well and can tweak them slightly. It is important to do that. There is a lot of opportunity to learn across the …