Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I too, welcome the opportunity to contribute briefly to this motion and wish to congratulate our front bench spokesman, Deputy Simon Coveney, for his great work in publishing a very constructive strategy document, Rebuilding Ireland, which has the potential to create up to 100,000 jobs in the new green energy industry over the next four years in areas such as construction, engineering, software research and forestry.

We all know the most recent emergency budget from the Fianna Fáil-led Government was cruel towards middle income families. It was also clearly lacking in areas relating to a jobs plan. Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have no jobs plan in regard to retaining existing jobs and how to create new jobs in the new economy.

Investment in renewable green energy in both wind and wave is the way forward for Ireland. It is time for us to focus and become a leader by investing in all aspects of renewable energy. In 2008, for example, we spent an outrageous amount of money — €6.5 billion — importing fossil fuels which did nothing to improve our CO2 emissions and did great harm to our climate change plan. The importation of this amount of fuel needs to stop. We need to keep this money here and use it to become more energy self-sufficient and to help rebuild Ireland.

One example of where we missed out in not becoming a global leader is in regard to wind energy. This industry is worth billions each year to the Danish export market and it is an area in which we should have excelled rather than continue to import that technology. Another opportunity for this country is in ocean energy. This cannot be missed. Commercial prototype models are still being developed but, sadly, progress in Ireland has been very slow. It has been proved through wave intensity maps that this country has the best potential of all countries in Europe to utilise this energy and to make money by becoming a world leader in this area. By becoming a leader in renewable energy, Ireland will come out of this depression and we will create thousands of new jobs in the renewable energy industry and take thousands of people off the dole queues.

A false economy was built in this country by Fianna Fáil based on the sale of property over the past ten years. The Government was completely reliant on stamp duty and VAT receipts from the sale of housing to finance day-to-day Government spending. Sadly, the past ten years were dominated by land speculation, developers' greed and banks handing out endless amounts of money through 100% mortgages. We have now had a crash.

This country is practically broke and has collapsed spectacularly thanks to the failed Fianna Fáil polices adopted. We now must bail out the developers who not only bought land here, but abroad. Where was the Financial Regulator? Where was the governor of the Central Bank during this time? The house of cards has collapsed spectacularly and now the taxpayer must foot the bill. The Government is forcing every taxpayer to take out bad loans to the tune of €90 billion, which is a disgrace. Fianna Fáil has presided over this mess. It has no plan to get the 388,600 people now unemployed, including construction workers, back to work.

We cannot again build an economy based on property sales. Fine Gael is the party which will never allow land speculators and developers' greed to dominate and destroy this country. Fine Gael is the only party to have a job creation plan which will get 100,000 back to work. Our party will invest in renewable energy. We will install electricity smart meters in every home. We will establish the country as a leader in ocean energy. We will invest in the bio-energy industry which is currently under-utilised.

Green energy is the future for this country but is the Green Party? By investing in it now, we have the opportunity to take people off dole queues and provide them with sustainable employment. As part of our climate change strategy, we cannot indefinitely continue to important fossil fuels into Ireland. It is time for change in this country and Fine Gael's new document, Rebuilding Ireland, which is forward looking, sets out how a new green energy revolution, which is badly needed, will help get this country moving again.

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