Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Ministers and their respective staffs. I congratulate them on their efforts to date and the economic performance which is satisfactory. There are always pitfalls that have to be identified and avoided, if possible, and provided for in order to ensure the smooth movement of the economy in the future.

On the commentary on foreign direct investment, the Apple tax and so on, we need to be cautious in the international arena. There is a danger in that we are moving from what was the Single Market into a series of national supports. That is lethal for this country and for all small countries. I have had countless arguments and rows with officials from Europe and so on. It comes back again and again to the fact that they want to respond to the issues that threaten individual countries, etc., but they have vast resources in comparison with the resources available to this country. There is a need to urge our European colleagues to get back to the European concept of the Single Market and rediscover Europe for the benefit of all. The person or business on main street Berlin or Paris has to be treated equally with the person on main street Belmullet, Drogheda or wherever. That is the Single Market. Europe as a single entity benefits all and each. Movement away from that, even by stealth, will lead to consequences that we would not wish to deal with.

People are asking about what we will do with all the billions. I fully recognise the advice that we do not spend it on day-to-day expenditure. That is an artificial subsidy which will do two things. It will give the public, the country, the banking system and the business system the feeling that this will go on forever and we can rely on it. We cannot rely on anything ever. Furthermore, we need to make absolutely certain that we are in a position to at least use it for emergencies, rainy day funds, national reserves or whatever the case may be. We know from experience that our national reserves did not last very long when they really came under pressure. It was not in years but hours that the attack had to be measured. The good advice is well noted.

However, it is a time when there appears to be something we did not expect. It was not meant to help us out. These new rules, which were introduced, and the fine on Apple were not meant to help this country. That was meant to dissuade, first, because there were other ways of doing that. It was not necessary to fine the alleged offender to that extent. They have done other things in Europe. They have warned people in Europe who have been asked to readjust and so on and it worked more easily and had less impact. Here we have to deal with it as it is.

The housing situation deserves a visit. I have mentioned this umpteen times. I have spoken to the Minister for housing too, and I know he is listening carefully. By the way, I want to congratulate the Government on achieving what it has done on housing. It is strange to think that during the lifetime of the Governments, it has provided more housing – or more housing has been built – than the Opposition has promised. That is an extraordinary situation altogether. I have never seen anything like that before. Oppositions are not normally slow in making promises. Even governments are sometimes not slow making promises. That is to be encouraged.

Funds are now funding the construction sector to a huge extent. They are impairing the fair trade of the system. For example, they intervene by buying up large and small blocks of apartments and reletting them, penalising the people who have to pay the high rents – and they are massive, appallingly high rents. The State needs to move in and authorise a system whereby we use some of our resources to identify the local authority areas where the housing situation is most severely felt at the moment and try to address it. The houses are already built. They are being built by the private sector. They are all ready to go but the people moving in on them now are the funds which will, in turn, rent them out to the tenants and the tenants will remain tenants forever. I would ask that be looked at. This is essential and will give an impetus to the housing construction sector that will be appreciated by the sector and the people looking for affordable housing, local authority-type houses or whatever the case. It is there and it is possible to deal with it.

On the national development plan, there is increasing evidence that bureaucracy and red tap is holding up various contracts and proposals. I ask that a special effort be made to accelerate the speed with which contracts can be realised and put in place and that the preparatory work be done in a much faster way than has been the case. It has a huge impact on our economy. We need to stabilise it and give the community confidence that the system is alert to what works.

Health and education, which have already been mentioned, continue to require careful monitoring. The population is increasing all the time. Health is an area that deals with the public directly and education is increasingly important in the context of population trends. I ask that the Ministers continue to take that into account.

Infrastructure has been mentioned at several meetings during the day. It goes without saying that we must provide this. There is no use providing part of what is required to develop the economy in the future.

We have to provide all the elements evenly across the board. Even the smallest intervention can have a massive impact on the speed with which we achieve our objectives. We need to make it happen. We are doing so already. The Government, the people, the business sector and the workers have the practice. They are willing to respond, so we need to do more.

Pro ratapensions are an issue I had an interest in years ago when I was in the relevant Department. In the course of our dealings, we all meet people who do not have sufficient contributions to obtain a full pension. We know the way it was; we changed it somewhat but there are still glitches and bumps in the road. I ask that we at least review the extent to which a person who has half the necessary contributions, three quarters or whatever the case may be, is favourably considered for a pension that is somehow commensurate with their contributions. Heretofore, contributions have been made and have been a subsidy for the State. There is no reason for that at all. I ask that this be considered. I am not going to tell anybody how to do the budget; you guys know well how to do that yourselves. I am of the view that it should be considered, however.

My next point is very minor, and I do not know what the Ministers can do about it. There is an increasing tendency on the part of public and private offices everywhere, that if a citizen makes a phone call, the phone is allowed to ring forever. If it is answered eventually, the call is automatically kicked on to somebody else. If you press button 1 or do X, Y or Z, you might be lucky in about an hour's time. Time is money. People do not have time to play around with machines and all that kind of nonsense. Please, can somebody press a button somewhere that would electrify the people who should answer the phone? Things are not so bad in their respective areas that they cannot pay somebody to do that. I will not comment on the banking system in that area because others have spoken about it already.

There is hidden inflation that I cannot work out. We have all had discussions with the catering sector in hotels, restaurants and so on. They are under pressure, there is no doubt about that, for whatever reason. I have heard mention over the years of a forensic examination of the cost factors involved, identifying where the threats are coming from. Some of the issues are real and threatening. Because those industries are important from the point of view of tourism and the economy, we need to do something about it and find out the situation. Some small businesses are closing. Strictly speaking, that should not be happening.

The other issue is how they recruit staff. They have to import staff, obviously, in that area on a regular basis. We have to smooth access to the necessary staff in hotels and restaurants to ensure that customers want to frequent such places. If we do not do that, they will not. I am sorry for going on too long.