Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

Yes. Rather than looking back, it is more important today to look forward. We could spend a great deal of time asking what if, but it is more important to reach agreement on our vision for ten years' time. Once we are clear on this, many other ideas will flow naturally. I want to move beyond the criticism into the realm of ideas, and I am grateful that Deputy McGinley, at the end of his contribution, threw out ideas that moved beyond criticism.

We are a small country, an island nation on the edge of Europe. In historical terms, there was the European century of the 19th century and the American century of the 20th century. The 21st century is, in my mind, the Asian century and that puts pressure on a small island nation on the edge of Europe. The factors that help us are that we have a decent education system, we speak English, the demographics are good in that we have many young people in training, education or available for work, and we are fairly good at thinking on our feet. Those all are positive advantages for Ireland. On the downside, our costs are high, we have an up-hill battle on balancing outgoings with income, the bond spreads are tough at present and the Government, paradoxically, is over centralised in some areas and too scattered in others.

However, let us look ahead to 2020 and work out what will get us through this. The future will be smart, green and about added value. The question is, who will make those jobs. The Government will make some, but not all, of them and we must be careful that we do not see Government as being the main provider of all the jobs of the future. The more important role for Government is to bring about a programme of reform and, in the short and medium term, reform of our budget. At present, €3 out of every €5 that we pay in wages is being borrowed. Looking ahead, one cannot sustain that position.

The other reforms are crucial as well. In the past couple of years, in Government we have dramatically reformed the planning system in Ireland. We are reforming public transport. Today, metro north received the green light for the railway order from An Bord Pleanála and it is important that this project goes ahead. We are putting in place climate change legislation, local government reform, a directly elected mayor for Dublin city and county, and more competition and more choice in the market. This process of reform is very valid. We have already brought about significant banking reform. Heads have rolled at the top level and we have put in place a head of the Central Bank and a regulator who have the trust of the Government and the people.

Let us think for a second of what the smart economy will consist. Education must be at the heart of it, as must access to education for both the well-off and the less well-off. It is crucial that we get the early years right and that is why the Government, particularly in the past year, has prioritised education by ensuring that children get the education to which they are entitled.

Even as we face a very tough four-year fiscal programme, there is an opportunity to look ahead and ask what investment in education, in buildings and capital infrastructure will happen up to 2014. There is an opportunity in making tough fiscal adjustments.

I think the future will be green, and I am glad to see Deputy Gilmore's recent conversion to advocating retrofitting. I agree with him. It is something we have been doing for the past three years in Government and something we have been talking about for the past 20 years. It is good to invest in renewable energy. It is already happening. The amount of renewable energy has doubled in our time in Government. We are now second in Europe for supplying clean, green renewable energy into the grid but we can go a great deal future. We can double that again by 2020, to provide 40% of our electricity from renewable sources.

There is a green future in farming. There is clean, green growth ahead in farming. We have good soil, a good climate and good grass, and I believe there is a strong future for Irish farming. There is a strong future in adding value to farming in Ireland. There is an explosion in artisan producers. There is a real interest in making more with our good fresh raw ingredients in dairy, meat, fruit and vegetables. I believe there is a bright future there, but it is tough to get the cost balance right and we are working on that in Government.

The green future is in public transport, in reforming Dublin Bus, which we are already rolling out on doing more with less which is crucial, but also with metro north. It will create 4,000 jobs directly in its construction and 2,000 indirect jobs. I hope Deputy Gilmore will throw his weight behind support for that project.

There is a future in added value. There is a significant future in the digital economy, with the web summit in Dublin at present, and in applications in new media and in the kinds of jobs one is seeing in Google and Facebook, and in the other new media of the future. There is a bright future, if we can agree on that vision. While it is tough at present, there are massive opportunities out there that can be seized not only by Government, but by the private sector. However, it is all predicated on reform.

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