Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 27 April 2021

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Chief State Solicitor's Office (Revised)

Photo of Neale RichmondNeale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach very much for that. The real proof of this shared island initiative will be the sight of actual shovels in the ground and material advancements so that people can see these projects. The buy-in of the Northern Executive will be very important. I hope that certain political noises and stand-offs between certain elements of the Executive can be avoided to progress projects. That just makes sense for everyone on this island.

One of the issues the Taoiseach touched on was that of high-speed rail between Dublin and Belfast. This will be very important to the new Dublin-Belfast economic corridor. It also feeds into a second area, which relates to Vote 2. I refer to the Government's post-Brexit trade and investment plans. One of the great skills of one of the Taoiseach's predecessors, an iarThaoiseach, Enda Kenny, was his ability to take to the world and sell Ireland, to get companies of all sizes to invest in the country and to push through really imaginative projects that allowed the economy to recover and which restored so many people's jobs. Deputy Doherty has already spoken about those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. That will be a very significant challenge.

With regard to that section of Vote 2, the Department of the Taoiseach not only works alongside but co-ordinates with State agencies like Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland which come under the Tánaiste's Department. There is also the matter of how the Taoiseach envisages maximising Ireland's role on the UN Security Council. There are only 18 months left in that appointment. A great deal has been curtailed by the pandemic but the Taoiseach has said, both in his address and in the supporting documentation, that his Department has big plans for that role. As we are facing into a very acute economic squeeze post pandemic, with the spectre of the lingering fallout of Brexit, will the Taoiseach flesh out how his Department will lead the economic charge in that regard, bearing in mind the great work done by his predecessors, such as Enda Kenny?

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