Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

The Tánaiste's recent decision to divert 25% of funding from the Skillnets programme makes no sense. It will be debated again and hopefully we will have the chance to do so next week through questions the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Diverting 25% of the Skillnets programme funding to FÁS makes no sense. Skillnets is very valuable. It supports employers and employees in developing skills. It is a network from which employers and employees can benefit. It does very valuable work on the ground. Why not extend it to the unemployed as well as the employed rather than abandoning it and taking funds from it? Protecting existing jobs and keeping people in employment is an essential part of the way forward.

I hope the budget will contain a very strong statement on how we are moving forward as a nation. The EU has given us until 2013 to come back within a 3% deficit. We need a broad vision of where we are going as a country. There are many opportunities, particularly for our exporters in international trade. That has been and will continue to be very valuable for us. The cost of our exports has increased because of the value of sterling but also because we have become uncompetitive. Our competitiveness has slipped badly in OECD ratings and issues such as efficiencies in our public services and local authority charges need to be addressed. Ireland is an expensive place to do business. Local authority charges have escalated, for example water charges have increased enormously. Anybody in business knows one is charged for water in and water out. Meanwhile there is the frustration of hearing that 50% of water is leaking away, literally going down the drain. These are the inefficiencies that drive people who are trying to do business crazy. The water system sums it up. It is totally inefficient.

Electricity charges are soaring. We have the second highest electricity charges in Europe and that needs to be addressed. We had the good news last week of the €110 million for the interconnector. That should help towards developing renewables but we need investment in our electricity grid. We need to map out how we will reach our target of 40% renewables in the energy sector by 2020, 11 years from now. That is important for the country's future. Investment in broadband is needed. Last week, Eircom announced it had no intention of investing in next generation broadband, NGN, yet it is essential for a small open economy such as ours that depends on international trading to introduce NGN.

The education system is important. Our workers of the future must have the necessary skills. The National Competitiveness Council recently produced a report addressing how important education will be and highlighting the reduction in the numbers taking mathematics in our schools. Insufficient numbers of students are taking higher level maths for the leaving certificate. This subject feeds into science, engineering and IT disciplines and financial services. The broad thrust of the economy will depend on these sectors to get us to 2013 and beyond. Investment is needed in this sectors. It is often bandied around that, in times of crisis, actions can be taken and issues addressed which would not normally be addressed.

Let us turn our education system up side down and focus on what the economy needs. This was done in Finland and Sweden. It was recognised that students did not have the educational qualifications needed to drive the economy. There was significant investment in mathematics and the sciences and they were focused on ensuring that the skills necessary for the economy to grow were available. The budget on 7 April will be painful but I hope the series of tax increases and spending cuts, which will hit everybody and families, in particular, will be equitable. The Minister should make a statement about how we will move forward and outline a plan or framework for competing on international markets, which, heretofore, was our strength. We need to get back to that position.

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