Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House today.I am delighted to speak about the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill. Despite the attendance here today, this is a really significant moment for us as a country. It shows that we have been able to bring economic stability and are now in a position, because of the national reserve fund and economic prudence, to take a serious step in the direction of resilience for the future. I see the creation of both of these funds as an insurance policy. It is an insurance policy in the short term because we know that we cannot rely on windfall corporation taxes indefinitely and should not be using them for day-to-day spending. It is also an insurance policy because of the obvious changes that are happening in this country. We have seen our health outcomes improve. We now have the highest life expectancy in Europe and 50% of our hospitals cater for those over 70. These are all really positive markers. As we need to be able to afford to pay for our healthcare and pension pot into the future, it is just common sense that we would take that into consideration.

The third insurance policy relates to the fact that this country has suffered because of economic downturns. What I really like about this policy is that it can ensure that major infrastructure projects that are essential and that are currently in the pipeline, like DART+ West, or the metro north project that was stopped previously, can continue. Such projects, wherever they are at a given time, can continue. Not only that, it also means that we do not face the repercussions that we faced following the global financial crash when we lost our construction workers and the institutional resources needed to turn things around quickly. We are still dealing with that ten years later in respect of the housing crisis. We need to make sure that we break the cycle of boom and bust. I understand that this might be politically challenging for people, especially if they have never had the responsibility of power, but we have made a commitment to the Irish people that we will stop the cycle of boom and bust and will take hard decisions that may not be popular on a given day. I have heard the main Opposition party talk about the fact that we have never needed a national reserve fund or a rainy day fund because it is pouring out there already but the truth is that we do need to think sensibly and ensure that whatever financial resources we have are still here, no matter what happens around the corner. In the time since that comment was made, we have faced a global pandemic, for instance, with all of the repercussions that followed.

The fourth insurance policy relates, of course, to the climate. We have to ensure that we transition, future-proof our country and make it a climate-resilient economy and society but that costs money. Some political parties may not be really and truly committed to that in the way that others are and what this Bill does is lock it into legislation and ensure that the legacy of prudence lives on. I remind colleagues that there is now a 40% productivity gap between the North and South. The politics of now has to be accompanied by the politics of the future and making tough decisions. I want to mention a project that should be considered in the context of the infrastructure, climate and nature Fund. The population of Dublin is growing substantially and is expected to reach 1.5 million by 2035.Green spaces have never been more important. I am in a constituency that has the Liffey Valley. In the 1990s, it was recognised in a national policy document as an area of untapped resource for green infrastructure and recreational space. This Government needs to invest in public lands and protect the Liffey Valley as a public park and make it more accessible to the population of Dublin. Dublin needs a hero project from which people can benefit. This fund would be perfect for that. In previous years, we missed opportunities-----