Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister for Justice and Law Reform. He is the first Minister to address the Seanad since the formation of the new Government.

On 25 February, the Irish electorate voted overwhelmingly for a Government of national recovery and demanded a new approach to politics in this country. The programme for Government is based on a realistic, fair and honest assessment of the crisis facing the country and the Government's vision for Ireland's development over the coming five years. The document is divided into the following five sections: the economy, which addresses our banking and fiscal crises; reform, which deals with the radical constitutional and political changes necessary; fairness, which aims at ensuring that citizens have equal access to and confidence in top quality services; and progress, which will rebuild confidence in every sector of our economy.

The programme for Government aims to restore confidence in Ireland both at home and abroad. The new Government will rebuild the country's international reputation and ensure every country, company and entrepreneur knows we are open for business. The Taoiseach led the first Government delegation to Washington, DC, to spread this message at several meetings with business leaders, culminating with a visit to the US President, Barack Obama, on St. Patrick's Day.

Given the limited time available to me, I will confine my remarks to a reflection on aspects of the programme for Government. Job creation and protection are central to any recovery strategy and the big challenge for Ireland is to develop a strategy that allows job growth and sustainable enterprise. Within 100 days, the Government for national recovery will introduce a jobs budget to keep our young people at home and support and protect employment. It will resource a jobs fund that can provide resources for an additional 15,000 places in training, work experience and education for those who are out of work. It will cut the 13.5% VAT rate to 12% up to the end of 2013. It will reduce by half the lower 8.5% rate of PRSI on jobs paying up to €356 per week until the end of 2013. It will also do the following: reverse the cut in the minimum wage; abolish the travel tax as part of a deal with airlines to restore lost routes; implement a number of sectoral initiatives in areas that will create employment in the domestic economy; initiate a long-term strategy to develop new markets in emerging economies; secure additional resources for the national housing energy retrofitting plan in order to phase out subsidies in this area by 2014; expand eligibility for the back-to-education allowance; and accelerate capital works that are shovel-ready and labour-intensive, including schools and secondary roads.

The programme for Government recommits Ireland to solving the fiscal crisis and honouring our sovereign debts. The gap will be reduced in a planned way, minimising the impact on the most vulnerable in our community while retaining incentives for enterprise and work. The fiscal strategy of the new Government commits, among other things, to retaining the corporate tax rate of 12.5%, maintaining the current rate of income tax together with tax bands and credits, maintaining the standard 10.75% rate of employers' PRSI and reviewing the universal social charge. With regard to the EU-IMF deal, the programme sets out the strategies that will be pursued to secure a solution that is perceived as affordable by both the international markets and the Irish public.

Reform is required to restore trust in politics and politicians, and the programme commits to a radical overhaul of the way politics and government work. The Government has already started this process by reducing pay for office holders, reducing staffing and reforming ministerial transport. These may be small changes in financial terms, given the state of our economy, but it is important that reform starts at the top, right from the start of this new Government.

Five constitutional referendums will be held during the term of the Government, on children's rights, the granting of full investigative powers to Oireachtas committees, protecting the confidentiality of citizens' communications with their public representatives, reductions in the salaries of judges in restricted circumstances, and the abolition of Seanad Éireann. Timetables for the drafting and debating of these Bills must receive priority. It would of course be practical and cost-effective if some of these five referendums could be held together, but detailed analysis must be carried out first.

Given the serious matters raised in the Moriarty tribunal, the report of which was published yesterday, it is worth highlighting the commitment in the new programme for Government to ensure that Governments and political parties are held to account. The Government will introduce the necessary legal and constitutional provisions to ban corporate donations to political parties, which are long overdue. I have already mentioned the proposed referendum to amend the Constitution to reverse the effects of the Abbeylara judgment, which would enable Oireachtas committees to carry out full investigations of all matters.

The views and input of the public are also critical to any reform process. The new Government will establish a constitutional convention to consider comprehensive constitutional reform, introducing a review of our Dáil electoral system and reducing the presidential term, among other matters.