Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate. The Opposition Deputies have provided us with a timely opportunity to discuss the matter but, unfortunately, they have missed the point in an effort to gain political kudos yet again, something which is the detriment of this House and society generally.

The motion is short and seems to indicate that the Government is responsible for all business costs and, therefore, for the difficulties in which we find ourselves. That is fine but I am sure the public sees it quite differently.

Any objective analysis of costs facing business today would look elsewhere and would focus, not on this motion but on issues which have been raised in a review carried out by the competitiveness council earlier this year under the auspices of Forfás. That document is revealing because it identifies some areas that do not immediately come to mind as being significant in terms of the cost of doing business here. We all know about the issues of energy and labour, but the report indicates that, from an Irish business point of view, our legal costs are the highest in the OECD. That is something with which almost every enterprise now finds itself dealing. If our costs are the highest in the OECD, it is something which needs to be looked at without delay. It is not one of the Government related costs.

Surprisingly, there is also an indication in competitiveness council report that IT costs in Ireland are the highest in the OECD. I would have thought, since we had so many skills and so much IT development in this country, that we would have been lower down the scale. It is clear, therefore, that both legal and IT costs are causing great difficulties from an enterprise and business point of view and are something at which we need to look.

Labour is one of the biggest costs that all industries and businesses in the State must deal with. It is important that we would work towards controlling pay, both at public and at private level. It is vital to do that in terms of regaining competitiveness.

As a society, we need to learn from some of the experiences of the past and we must question the decision on increases in pay that AIB made today. That is not to take from the staff or any contractual arrangements that might have been there. However, it is important to send out the most positive signals that we will work, at a minimum, towards freezing pay in those sectors. There were also issues of pay increases for staff within the ESB, which is something we should look at.

We must work from the top down. We must look at the entire remuneration process for the higher end executives and ensure that we set a proper ceiling for pay. We must move away from the notion of bonus pay and provide a much more simplified system of remuneration that rewards people for the work they do in a fair and equitable way but does not allow certain sectors to be paid in a manner that creates disharmony within the lower levels of employment. That will help us in regaining our competitiveness.

Energy costs also need to be addressed. The regulatory regime that is in place to control costs was slow to kick into action because of the structures that have been put in place to encourage competition. That is now starting to reap rewards, although we must be far more creative in resolving our energy needs through the use of green technology. We operate on the western seaboard of Europe which gives us access to wind, wave and tidal power generation. We need to invest more in this area to ensure we gain the competitive advantage that that energy, which is on our doorstep, could provide to industry for the future.

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