Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank everyone who has contributed to the debate on this motion, and in particular the Labour Party and Sinn Féin, who showed support for the majority of the principles of what we are proposing. I want to put on the record again what the big idea is here because Government spokespersons seems to have missed it. The Fine Gael motion is trying to bring forward a constructive draft policy document — a Green paper, although it is more detailed than that — to finance an €18 billion stimulus package over the next four years, without the Government having to borrow a cent. I will be exact for the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, in stating that the package would create 98,880 jobs. That is the exact figure predicted from an independent analysis of our figures in terms of what job creation can be produced from our proposal.

We are proposing to rebuild infrastructure, as well as building new infrastructure, to prepare people for the new economy. Our economy can no longer survive on selling and building houses for each other. That is in the past. We can no longer expect six out of every ten young men going into the workforce to work on building sites, because that is also in the past. We need to find new ways of employing these people so they can pay for their mortgages and other debts, as well as feeding their families and being confident in Ireland's future. My generation has grown up in a period where confidence drove investment, spending and economic growth, but that has disappeared in the space of eight months.

Our proposal is trying to bring back direction to where the economy is going, where we will channel investment and how we will raise that money. The Government is broke and will probably have to borrow €21 billion to pay the bills this year, not to mention an extra stimulus package on top of that. What response have we had from the Government to our constructive document? It may not be perfect and needs to be tested, but it already has been tested in a serious way within our party. The response we get is one of disdain and arrogance. We hear set scripts, written in the Department of Finance and elsewhere, from Ministers who are supposedly too busy to read our policy document. Government spokespersons dismiss the new era concept as a new super quango. A quango is financed by Government, by taxpayers' money, but we are talking about financing a new State holding company. It will finance itself by getting a commercial return, thus changing the way in which State-owned companies operate. It would introduce accountability and targets for such companies in order that they can deliver on behalf of the State.

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, regularly states that the ESB is doing all we need in terms of energy policy. It is an important company which is doing many good things and it has many good people working for it, but the ESB should not be deciding energy policy; the Government should be doing that. It should be implementing it on behalf of the shareholder, which is the State, but that is not happening. Irish energy prices are too high, whether for gas or electricity. Even though next week gas prices will reduce by 12% and electricity prices by 10% or 11%, that is not enough. In the open market where gas is currently being provided to the industrial sector, there are savings of 30% or 40% on what companies were spending last year. However, the poor old consumers and small businesses which rely on the regulator to provide a competitive price, are getting shafted again at a time when they need relief. Meanwhile, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, claims we do not need any change or new Government thinking on the approach to sectors such as energy, broadband and water. I reject that argument.

I agree with him on one level, however, in that the green economy will be the basis of Ireland's new economic growth in two, three or perhaps five years' time. It is arrogant for him to reject a costed and well thought out alternative proposal on how we will get there. For him to dismiss our proposal and continue on as he has been doing for the past two years under his reign in the energy sector, displays the kind of arrogance he has learned from Fianna Fáil. I reject that too.

This proposal is about reform because Ireland needs to reshape and recreate itself. Fine Gael has also proposed reforms for health care and third level education. Deputy Richard Bruton has been trying to propose reform of the public sector for four years. I am trying to propose reform of how State companies are managed, including the targets set for them and the performance indicators by which they operate. By doing that, State companies can deliver what the State is not capable of delivering at present through borrowing. The ESB is able to raise significant sums of money for required investments. In the same way, if we were to restructure the way in which State companies operate we could raise very large sums of money from private sector investment and pension funds to develop a far more competitive economy. In rebuilding that new Ireland we could employ tens of thousands of people. That is what this constructive motion is about.

The Minister and his Government need to listen because their approach is wrong and they are driving the country into the ground. Realistic predictions indicate that there will be 600,000 people in dole queues. As we head in that direction, the Government refuses to listen or show humility and accept it was wrong. We are not only experiencing an international recession. Irish unemployment figures are very much out of kilter with those of other countries in recession because policy has been wrong. We need to rebuild and start again, as the motion sets out to do.

I expected the Government to respond to the motion by at least reading and assessing it. It should have accepted the good points while rejecting elements with which it cannot live, yet it has not even done this. That type of arrogance has resulted in a complete loss of faith in the leadership the Government is providing. We need change — new ideas and new people — and if it does not come about soon, the population will demand it. The country cannot continue to move so quickly in the current direction.

I commend the motion to the House.

See this speech in context