I thank the Deputies for their contributions and for their constructive and useful feedback, which I certainly welcome. Many supported the broad thrust of the Bill and its underlying objectives. The Bill will further enhance the ability of the enterprise development agencies, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, to drive investment and employment across the country. It will also ensure the enterprise agencies have the legislative tools they will need to incentivise companies to accelerate their green and digital transitions. It will allow IDA Ireland to further enhance its property and infrastructure offerings. A key element of that will be supporting regional, balanced development. That is very much evident in its strategic plans and we can see that magnified in every corner of this country with some property banks, but also with advanced building solutions being developed and have been developed to meet client demand and support regional needs. The Bill streamlines the ability of the agencies to support defence, security and resilience. In summary, it is designed to drive investment and support innovation in areas that are strategically critical for Ireland. Many Deputies raised concerns about the general scheme of the Bill that was published and approved in February of 2025. Over the past year, we have witnessed the growing challenges but also the opportunities in areas of our economy that are related to defence, security and resilience. They have become increasingly clear, given the extraordinary budget allocations for security, at national and European level. Looking at the challenges we face with regard to moving the level of ambition within our Defence Forces to the next level, significant investment will be required and it is against this backdrop that it is time to replace that blanket constraint. What we are focused on doing is providing this amendment, which solely relates to the functions of enterprise agencies and their capacity to support Ireland's strategic objectives. It will allow the agencies to support, financially or non-financially, enterprises in the defence, security and resilience sphere, like other parts of our economy, but importantly it is subject to compliance with all existing controls and legal obligations governing these sectors. For this Government, it is about ensuring that we can maximise funds from European programmes, such as the forthcoming European competitiveness fund. It is about ensuring Ireland benefits from this. Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland must be able to engage confidently with potential partners, with companies and consortia operating in this sphere. If we do not do that, someone else will. These amendments in the Bill provide the clarity that is required for agencies to participate fully and appropriately in these programmes, supporting Irish researchers, supporting small to medium enterprises right throughout our country, and also ensuring the multinational firms that want to collaborate with the innovation, defence, security and resilience fields can actually do so. That is a good thing and one that would be welcomed. It does not impact the activities of enterprises themselves as activities in this sphere are controlled by a comprehensive, multilayered framework involving primary and secondary legislation under the Control of Exports Act 2023 and Ireland's obligations under international treaties, including in relation to human rights. Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland are subject to overarching Government policy, ministerial policy direction and strict internal governance and compliance standards. It is very important to emphasise this because I have heard Deputies, including Deputy Boyd Barrett, make assertions regarding "sinisterism" and the charge that we tried to smuggle this into the Bill. This could not be further from the truth. The Government has a regulatory and compliance framework for enterprises operating in the State and that is not affected by the deletion of this section. All existing checks and controls remain fully intact, including the EU regulation around the Control of Exports Act, the provisions of which are unaffected. We operate export licence applications. These are considered by our officials in accordance with criteria set out within the relevant dual use and military EU and national regulations and in line with Ireland's international obligations and responsibilities as a member of non-proliferation regimes and export controls remit. That is an important point with regard to Deputy Boyd Barrett's accusation that we are in some way complicit in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. This Government has been very strong in upholding international law but we also ensure that each application is assessed individually, with detailed consideration of the nature of the items, the destination country, the identity of the end user, the intended end use and the potential misuse, using all reliable information available at the time from a range of different sources. That has to be factored in. All of this presents complex factors, which are considered in every application. If there are any concerns that goods exported will not be used for the specified end use or by specific end users, they will be detailed in the application. If the exporter does not provide enough information regarding the intended end use, our officials make an informed decision. The bulk of dual-use items exported from Ireland, including those to Israel, are mainstream business ICT products such as software, hardware, networking, data storage and cybersecurity and have been categorised as so. We want to continue to support indigenous Irish companies. We see this Bill as an important vehicle for multinationals that are based here and IDA client companies to continue the good work they do and we look forward to progressing it through the House.

Sentiment score: 0.36