Mr. Paul Sweeney:

On the €3 billion stimulus, congress feels that the Government has got its macroeconomic policy wrong.

The evidence is in the day-to-day living, in that people know there are very few green shoots. I note the Minister for Finance appeared before the joint committee this morning and more or less stated there is very little growth. While he is hoping for some uptake on exports, no economy is going to survive on exports. It is a zero-sum game throughout Europe with little growth. Essentially, the key point I wish to make about our submission is we would reverse what the Government is doing, which is very little by way of tax rises. Moreover, it is hammering the poor as 78% of all the tax rises thus far have been on lower-paid working people. Put simply, it ain't working and while they can blame Europe, people in their hearts and souls must know it really is not working and people are going round with their fingers crossed. We have proposed that the taxes should be increased substantially, particularly on high-paid people who are not spending their money.

The second thing is the stimulus programme of €3 billion per year, about which the Chairman has asked a question. We published a document in July, which we have costed and for which we ran a model. We have a body attached to congress called the Nevin Economic Research Institute, NERI, which now has an economic model that is as good as those of the ESRI or the Central Bank and it is doing work in this regard. The Chairman also asked where we would invest and we would invest in five broad areas. The first is broadband, which is a serious area. Another is retrofitting and energy efficiency, about which we are at one to a degree with IBEC because our housing stock is poorly insulated and one would get a major gain from this. I do not know whether grants should be given but that definitely is worth thinking about. Another area is public transport, as our public transport system is pretty poor. We have made suggestions on finishing some of the major roads that are nearly ready to be finished, as well as on light rail, buses and so on. We advocated completion of the Luas BDX line, which has got the go-ahead and I believe that is great news for Dublin's citizens. Only Irish people - certain politicians - could design two tramlines that do not meet. The fourth and fifth areas are water and waste treatment and health and education and we advocated certain projects with regard to the latter, such as the children's hospital and the Grangegorman campus. The Grangegorman project is very labour intensive. It is in the inner city and is a very good project in which to invest and we are delighted the Government is going ahead with it. These are the essential points.

The Chairman asked about automatic enrolment in pensions. It would be mandatory and consequently, there would be no opt-out. Young people really never think of their pensions and it is only when one hits 50 that one starts thinking about them. An interesting point in this regard concerns people like me, who worked in England for some years. I worked there for six or seven years before going to college, but my brother, who was there, tells me I am going to get a pension from Britain for those years, which is good news. It might only be a fiver a week but it is something one never thinks of when one is young. We can revert to pensions but on the property tax, we are fairly broad in that regard. To be straight with the joint committee it is because congress represents 39 unions in the Republic and getting them together on this was a difficult task. We know what is going to happen-----