Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I will happily go through the list with Deputy Andrews after this debate. I would like to make some more suggestions in the five remaining minutes available to me.

If one needs to inflict pain on somebody, one should start by inflicting it on one's self. Only then can one undertake the communications challenge of convincing people that the pain one needs to inflict on them will be good for them or, at least, is a necessity that cannot be avoided. I am really concerned when I hear the Taoiseach saying the Government will not meet the targets it has set for itself, but will instead try to get as close as it can to them. I have heard the leader of the Labour Party saying something similar. I am worried that people are starting to back away from the need to grasp the nettle, which is something we must not do. We need to face the challenges that have resulted from a combination of the huge policy mistakes that have been made and the impact on Ireland of the international recession. The pain that is necessary needs to be front-loaded in order that the period of recession can be reduced and the international collapse of confidence in Ireland can be arrested. There is no doubt the damage being done to Ireland's reputation will affect our ability to borrow money in the short term. People are warning us about that every week.

I would like to make some positive proposals. Deputy Bruton has articulated the need to use a crisis of this nature to bring about fundamental reform in the public sector. I do not need to go into that because it has been well articulated. At noon tomorrow, Fine Gael will launch a document setting out the case for the radical reform of State companies in the public sector. As Deputy Bruton has said, such an approach would facilitate significant investment in the Irish economy during a time of recession. We need to shift the burden of lending money for capital investment in the Irish economy away from the Government, which cannot afford it right now, to new commercial State-owned companies which should be established for a new era and a new economy. The proposals we will launch tomorrow will involve an investment of approximately €18 billion in infrastructure over four years in areas like water, broadband, energy and transport. We will propose new and imaginative ways of financing such infrastructure that will not affect the Government's balance sheet, which clearly could not sustain any further negative impact.

I ask the Government to examine what we will propose tomorrow. It can take it on board as its own idea if it wants. We need to invest in a manner that will stimulate the Irish economy and close the substantial gap in our national deficit, which is continuing to grow. If we invest in strategic infrastructure now, we can create between 90,000 and 100,000 jobs in the process, which will represent the equivalent of an €18 billion investment. Not only would we create jobs at a time of recession, we would also create an infrastructure in order that when recession comes to an end and there is growth again in Ireland, we would be well placed to take advantage of it aggressively to create new opportunities, which is what is needed.

Let us not limit our thinking to solving the financial deficit crisis in the budget. Let us broaden it to try to find new ways of attracting private sector money and using National Pension Reserve Fund money to invest in labour intensive infrastructure in a way that people can be employed during the recession and that we can prepare the country for the future. If there is but one point I can make today it is that people want and need optimism from their political leaders. They want to know that we are in charge. They know that they are about to enter a very rough period in Ireland's history but they also want to know that there is a plan to bring us through it. To call for optimism or for the country to pull together, as people regularly do, is rubbish, unless there is a plan and a direction in which people can pull together in order that they know where they are going.

Let us have the budget. Let us try to close the gap in terms of the deficit but let us also have the other ideas that are necessary in terms of job creation and job protection in order that people can have some confidence that we know where we are going and that there is a destination following a difficult journey. If there is no such leadership, people will lose hope and we will start to create a new generation of long-term unemployed persons in Ireland. The Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, knows how difficult it would be to shake this off over a period of time. Once people get used to being long-term unemployed in very large numbers it is difficult for a state to start getting them back to work. There are so many highly employable, well educated motivated people who are losing their jobs that we must arrest the dramatic collapse in employment. That is as important as closing the deficit gap. We should not forget this in devising the budget.

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