Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I join in the comments on the response the committee got from the Secretary General. It is clear he is not getting paid by the number of words he writes because it was an incredibly curt response to a committee and it added no light. It did not reflect the level of stress and concern that people understand the recruitment process to have caused.

I want to ask about the extraordinary debts that Ireland is building up. I am amazed by the lack of discussion that is happening in Leinster House about it. Ireland has had the longest and most severe lockdown of any country in the European Union. That has happened for a number of reasons, such as the weakness in the health service, the lack of protection in nursing homes and airports, the lack of cross-Border co-operation and so on. The Minister mentioned vaccines, and we welcome the fact that about 140,000 vaccination doses are being rolled out weekly, but the Government's promise was to reach 250,000 vaccination doses at this stage. Because of the extended lockdowns in this country, our debt is multiples of that of other countries. It is not just 10% or 20% higher; it is 200 or 300 times that of other countries such as Germany, yet there has been no evident difference in mortality and morbidity. It is estimated that by 2025, our debt will peak at about €270 billion. We entered the crisis with extraordinarily high debt and it looks as if, at the end of it, we are going to be an outlier in debt terms.

That debt works out at something like €100,000 for every worker in the country. It is the third-highest level of public debt in the world. This leaves us phenomenally exposed because after this crisis recedes, which it is to be hoped will happen soon, we will start to re-enter a normal debt market and Ireland will be radically exposed to that. Through the years, Governments have typically dealt with debt in the same manner, that is, by cutting public service investment and increasing taxes. There are other ways, such as growing the economy in order that the State has an increased level of income. Inflation has been used as an economic tool to deal with debt. What are the plans of the Government to start to reduce the deficit that exists and to tackle debt levels in the coming years?