Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy John Curran, to the House. This country has an opportunity to transform its economic and environmental models. I congratulate Deputy Coveney on proposing this motion and working on this stimulus plan. Deputies on this side of the House are confident that the positive economic and environmental transformation we have proposed will happen in the not too distant future. We have to get ourselves out of the current impasse.

I would like to ask the Minister of State a few questions. An EU stimulus package worth €400 billion, or 3.3% of the Union's GDP, was announced in January. What is the current position in that regard? Has any of that money come to Ireland, particularly the regions? People in my constituency are asking what has happened to the €400 billion, which is a great deal of money. Other countries are using their imaginations to develop creative stimulus packages. The government of Finland has put together a €2 billion stimulus package to incentivise Finnish householders to spend money on renovating and refurbishing their homes. The Finnish government has provided for creative VAT reductions to encourage people to spend money on kitchens, tiles, plants and eco-friendly products. It is an absolute shame that no Green Party Deputy is present in the Chamber to defend the role it is playing in government.

In last October's budget and again in the recent mini-budget, the Government chose to ignore the opportunity being taken by countries like Finland and Sweden to reduce in a creative manner the rate of VAT that applies to plants and eco-friendly products. It is a disgrace that Government Members dare to talk about the green energy sector at a time when such basic opportunities are being missed. Ireland should be introducing energy technology incentives. Grant aid has been provided for solar energy. Ireland is in a peripheral location on the Atlantic Ocean. We should consider the development of grant incentives in respect of tidal, or wave, technology. The Minister has missed that opportunity.

We are not tapping into the market of 1.6 million people that exists in Northern Ireland. We are falling into the trap of saying that it is a question of swings and roundabouts. It has been suggested that it does not matter when a petrol station closes in Lifford or Enniskillen, as another petrol station will open in Strabane or Ballyshannon. Such circumstances, which may be described as swings and roundabouts, may have existed 20 or 30 years ago. That is no longer the case, however. People travel up the M1 from Deputy Doyle's constituency of Wicklow and Deputy Shatter's constituency of Dublin South because there is no incentive for them to spend money in this jurisdiction. We need to take the opportunity to be creative with our VAT regime. In 2006, household products in the Republic of Ireland were 11% more expensive than in Northern Ireland. In 2009, the differential is 51%. That is why so many consumers are choosing to spend their money in the North. They would be contributing to our economy and our Exchequer if they were spending their money in this jurisdiction, but that is not happening. It is time we rectified that situation.

We could approach the impasse in which we find ourselves in a defeatist manner by saying "we will be out of it in three or four years time". I suggest that we would be better advised to introduce certain mechanisms and schemes in the short term. Like other Deputies on this side, including Deputy Bruton, I made recommendations to the Minister for Finance before the recent budget. I would like to know why the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, claims to take our suggestions on board but then fails to implement them. When we made creative proposals in respect of a bundle of products at the higher end of the VAT scale — we wanted to incentivise people to buy such products by moving their VAT rating from the high end to the lower end — he said he would look into the matter. He was like a county council engineer looking into a pothole. That was the last we heard of it. The Minister looked into it, but he did nothing about it and the opportunity was missed.

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