Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was listening to the discussions and presentations from my office before I came here. I was a bit late for the match. This discussion is interesting, as Deputy Boyd Barrett alluded to, and many issues are being talked about that we should be talking about for longer and more effectively.

Based on what Professor Kinsella is talking about, we may be letting the green-energy revolution pass us by in the sense that if we do not pick up the pace now and take control of our potential, we will end up looking at turbines off the west coast of Galway producing energy but being serviced by others in Europe, saying it is a beautiful site or whatever. This will happen unless we become a little more brave in what we are doing and expedite the planning process and our intent to take charge as a nation, whether we use private investors or otherwise. That is an important point we need to discuss.

Reference was made to losing the potential of a chip manufacturing unit in Oranmore, County Galway. In a way, that should be a wake-up call indicating we have the potential to do something to create a huge industry on the west coast. The site is still there. Potentially, other customers will go there but the reason it was not picked by Intel should be examined. We should decide to correct the deficiency so we get things right rather than waiting for somebody else to go to the site and ask the same questions.

There were many references to Dell this evening. Digital, which was in Galway, was a major employer. When it decided to leave, we thought it was the death knell of Galway, but what happened was that many of the people who worked and trained there became business leaders and created factories that are now employing thousands in Galway and the regions. We undervalue the potential of our population. We think we have to have somebody with an American accent coming in to tell us how to do things rather than doing things ourselves. I would like Professor Kinsella's thoughts on that.

Let me return to the budget, where we are going with it, windfall tax and foreign direct investors. There are a number of factors we have to be concerned about. I agree with Dr. Healy that the budget does not meet the cost of living on an ongoing basis, which it should meet. One-off payments can be dangerous in that we may have to make a hell of a lot more of them over the next 12 months to see ourselves through a cost-of-living-crisis whose end we cannot now see. When a one-off payment is made, people expect it every year. How do we cope with people's expectations? Maybe the witnesses would like to comment on that.

Can they explain how they decided between rich and poor in respect of living standards? I will leave it at that. I might have a few more questions later.