Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this Bill. It is the first time we have had to sit down and discuss the sale of State assets. For many people this brings trepidation, but that is only natural. Any person in business will say selling an asset for long-term strategic gain is something that always happens. Our gain will be creating jobs which we must keep doing. We are doing it now.

I will bring Members back in time to when the Government came into office. Our first initiative was the jobs initiative, of which one of the larger points was the 9% VAT rate to stimulate tourism. It has worked very well. I am a great believer in planning and this initiative was brought forward early. People criticise this, but they always criticise things. Some would criticise the sun rising in the morning. The Gathering has happened. Our tourism numbers should not have dropped in the first place, but they are up again. All of this was planned; it was not accidental, and these initiatives cost money. JobBridge has been a very good success, although people criticise it and there have been issues with some employers. I have availed of it in my business and the quality of people coming through is excellent. With JobsPlus which came through last July a person who has been unemployed for three months can move to JobBridge and receive training. This is a great time for small businesses such as my own to build a loyal workforce that will see us through many tough and good times. A person who has been unemployed for three months can move to JobBridge with a sincere and decent company. He or she can move from that position to JobsPlus. A person participating in JobBridge receives an extra €50 per week with his or her unemployment assistance payment. As an employer, I would have no problem adding another €50 per week because the programme is of huge value to us. JobsPlus offers financial assistance to companies of up to €7,500 for a person who has been unemployed for a year. That means that a person can be unemployed for three months, join JobBridge and then JobsPlus. One can see a pattern of people returning to work, which is very important.

These programmes all need to be funded; nothing comes for free. That is why I am spending some time on it because these programmes are forgotten. For small businesses like my own, it gives one an extra person who goes out to look for more work and jobs are being created. I have done it. There is quiet confidence. I am not ignoring the issues, but there is no point in living with one's glass half empty. The figures show that there is job creation. Anyone can see this, although there are difficult sectors. I am in the agriculture sector which was described only a few years ago as a sunset industry - God help us. How times have changed.

Retention of a strategic distribution network is incredibly important, but selling the energy business is not critical.

We are already paying the highest prices for energy in Europe. There is no such thing as cheap fuel and I doubt that people will be queuing up for our dear energy. We need to get our targets on renewables in line. The future of energy generation will not be based on fossil fuels. We are junkies for fossil fuels because they are easy to use but we need to reduce our reliance on them. Several years ago, when I was promoting the development of our sugar industry into the production of both sugar and ethanol, a certain Deputy announced at a meeting that there was plenty of oil and that all we needed to do was to drill another hole in the ground. It was like throwing a cluster bomb into the middle of the meeting. How can we argue with someone who thinks in that way? The price of diesel fuel has increased continuously since then and, unfortunately, it is catching all of us. We have plenty of biomass in this country and using biomass and other renewable resources is a way of creating employment. It is a busy industry because it involves bulky materials. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to renewable resources because every area has to be considered separately. I acknowledge the productive work that members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine have done in this regard.

We must be strategic in investing in job creation because we cannot afford to lose the money. I use more fossil fuels than any other Member of this House and most other people in my county because I dry a large volume of grain. That is not a boast, because it pains me that I send 300,000 litres of diesel heating oil up to the sky every year. It is a dreadful way to use diesel fuel that can never be created again. Diesel gives us what we need for our industry but it also gives us high costs. The direct fire-drying of grain creates dioxin risks, about which we must be vigilant. I would like that risk to be removed altogether. Every summer I also face the risk that, for some reason, Egypt or one of those countries will go bananas - which is a funny word to use - and I will be unable to get any fuel. That would leave us in a dreadful situation. Someone has to pay for it. Some in this House take the attitude that we should renege on all our debts, but we would only get away with that once. It is not a solution, because businesses live on their reputation.

It is easy to be lazy on this matter because conventional fuels have been tried and tested. I ask the Minister to consider the renewable incentive scheme offered in the UK, which offers a financial rebate on a kilowatt-hour basis for industries and households replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies. It is, for example, possible to get a financial rebate for switching from oil to wood. I recognise the significant burden on our finances, but this scheme would be acceptable if it offered returns in the form of tax rebates. The people who install these expensive renewable systems will have money to spend because they will hopefully be earning extra money and they would appreciate a tax return as much as cash in hand. This scheme could generate significant employment. I have done a lot of work in this area and I think it will work over time if we put our heads together.

We must ensure any assets sold off are properly separated in order to avoid creating an unfair burden. The lifetime of the network also needs to be established to ensure charges levied on new users are fair to the new tender company and the taxpayer. In my game, maintenance is everything. Maintenance and replacement costs of existing networks need to be thoroughly examined and the extension of the network should be considered because we will have gas for some time to come and we need to factor it into the transfer planning. We are only too aware of the mess created by a previous Administration with the sale of Eircom. Flags were flown and shares were sold on the basis that we could get wealth by not earning it. Perhaps the assumption that one could get wealth without earning it was the start of the mess. One has to earn wealth, because it does not appear out of thin air. I was going to say wealth does not grow on trees but wealth can grow from trees if they are managed properly. Our broadband infrastructure has been curtailed since then. The concept is correct and simple but the detail needs to be worked out carefully.

The sale of State assets was initially prompted by the financial mismanagement of the State, but we have restored our reputation and moved on from that unfortunate point to discuss job creation. We would have to consider this issue even if the State was not dealing with a financial mess, because we would have to balance our books through job creation. There is an onus on all of us to work in this direction. All businesses sell assets when they consider them non-core.

I share a personal interest in renewable energy with the Minister for Health. Both of us espouse the virtues of wood gasification boilers. For the past five years I have heated my home with renewable energy. While the initial costs were significant, the system has already paid for itself. I get great satisfaction in being able to heat my home without forwarding money to the Arab states or elsewhere. It is a mentality. It requires more effort and sometimes it can be a hassle but it works very well. Sometimes one even finds that the heat levels are higher than one would expect because people turn up the dial too much. I challenge people to engage with renewable energy. It is easy to preach about the sale of State assets but people should live as they preach. Those who criticise our plans vociferously should ask themselves what they are doing in their small way to increase their use of renewable energies. Grant schemes are available for insulating houses and reducing waste. Every business has to reduce waste.

This Bill provides for the sale of State assets but, more important, it deals with job creation and a change in mentality. We need people to start thinking about energy use over the long term. In the early part of the last century my grandfather and his friends entered a ploughing match in County Carlow. They had a good day admiring others' ploughing skills and as they were leaving they noticed several of the new gadgets known as tractors in a corner of the field. As it was a considerable distance for some of the elderly men, they decided to head home instead of walking over to see them in action because they did not believe they would ever come into use. I assure Members that time stands still for nobody and renewable energy will come into use. We need to forge ahead by putting renewables at the forefront of what we do. We must also follow through with our educated young people in order to sell the new concepts in renewables worldwide.

I have no doubt about our ability to do this and I look forward to this discussion.

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