Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Two members who spoke earlier emphasised and highlighted what has not been achieved in the economy. That is an easy criticism to make. I will speak for what has been achieved which in my view has been considerable, taking into account the process of rescuing the country and beginning to rebuild the economy. The information presented today points to a resurgence in the economy. This may be a political view but it is borne out by international objective evidence. It is the international view that Ireland has rescued itself and is rebuilding its economy successfully.

Instead of always highlighting the negative, we should, as far as possible and without being too political about it, emphasise the role of the various Ministers and the staff of the different Departments and State agencies who have put in the work to facilitate the progress we have seen. Everybody charged with rebuilding our economy has been working in a difficult environment. We can have every confidence that the targets which are not yet achieved will be achieved in due course. It is important to have an objective view rather than perpetuating the sometimes unfair and inaccurate litany of negative comments regarding the economy. That negativity seeps into the public consciousness and turns people off.

The social economy is very feeble in this country but there is potential for it to become a strong and integral part of the broader economy. We are far behind other European countries in this regard in percentage terms. We need to see the development of the social economy as part of our overall economic recovery, as a solid platform on which that recovery can be reliably constructed. We have talked about this issue in previous meetings but it would be useful to revisit it and make it a target of this committee that there be solid progress in this area in the coming years.