Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

The Government has announced a new set of retail guidelines, apparently at the behest of the troika. Does the troika understand what is going on here? Has it considered what the net result of this will be? Major operators will come here to buy greenfield sites at rock bottom prices. They will be able to provide plenty of parking facilities, etc., at a time when we are trying to reverse a trend that was established when the heart was torn out of town and city centres. If we allow such a free-for-all to operate, we can forget about the regeneration of cities and towns.

Insurance costs are another factor in cost competitiveness. Health insurance costs have sky-rocketed as a direct result of a decision that was taken by the Minister for Health with regard to private beds in public hospitals. That outcome could have been foreseen. The Government's policy is to introduce a universal health insurance scheme. Given that so many people are dropping out of health insurance at the moment, I suggest that by the time the Government scheme comes into operation - in eight years' time, or whatever the target is - nobody will be paying for health insurance.

Another aspect of cost competition is the cost of legal services. I support the efforts of the Minister for Justice and Equality to deal with this matter. Although I admire the speed and enthusiasm with which he has introduced his policy it is the wrong policy. I am prepared to forecast, on this date in February 2012, that when the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 comes into effect, it will give rise to an increase, rather than a decrease, in legal services. It will increase elitism. It is wrong and misguided. The Minister should be man enough to listen to the valid criticisms of this Bill that have been made. He should go back to the drawing board. I do not doubt his sincerity when he says he wants to control legal costs but I suggest the legislation he has drawn up will do the reverse. I look forward to pointing out exactly what I mean when we debate the Bill next week.

Every Government has a duty to control energy costs, which present a major challenge to business, while at the same time ensuring there is a supply of energy. Ireland continues to be relatively expensive in this respect. That is likely to be exacerbated by the withdrawal of the temporary rebate for large energy users.

With regard to competition policy during the debate on the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2011, the Government refused to accept an amendment I tabled that would have allowed civil fines to be imposed when organisations and businesses act in an anti-competitive way. As a result, the legislation in question, which was passed by the Dáil recently, will be largely ineffective. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, seemed to indicate that we can export our way to full employment. That is very misguided. The chief executive of the Irish Exporters Association, Mr. John Whelan, recently said:

We cannot underestimate the challenges ahead for exporters ... Steps must be taken to support those companies looking to target markets in the rapidly growing economies in Asia , Middle East and Africa, particularly small and medium businesses, who must be supported to take risks and seek out new markets.

As the Minister pointed out, exports to the BRIC countries account for less than 4% of all Irish exports. Such exports grew by less than 5% in 2011. The average increase in exports to the BRIC countries across the 27 EU member states was 22.5%. The Irish Exporters Association is forecasting that total exports will grow by 3% in 2012, with a heavy emphasis on the United States.

The chief executive of the association has correctly noted that this level of export growth is significantly less than the 5% level that is necessary to deliver the Irish economic and employment recovery levels that are implicit in the EU-IMF programme targets. He said that additional pressure for public expenditure cutbacks will result from such a level of export growth to ensure debt to GDP benchmarks are adhered to.

I acknowledge the Minister's remarks about the previous Government's investment in innovation. When one examines what has been done and what is being done in innovation, it strikes one as a case of "as you were". No new ideas that are bold or radical are emerging. In 2010, under the last budget allocation to Science Foundation Ireland by the previous Government, there was an undertaking to retain the existing research centres and add to them. That is precisely what is being done. It does not require a great stretch of the imagination to say there is a bright future in cloud computing. The Government's plan does not make clear how we will take full advantage of that as a country. A great leap of the imagination is not needed to realise that the digital games industry in this country, which has substantial potential, needs to be better organised. I read a detailed Forfás report to that effect during the year. The principles of that report are repeated in the Government's plan. I look forward to seeing how they will be achieved. I wish the Government the best of success with that.

The Minister said it is intended that a net 100,000 jobs will be created under this plan. I recently asked him for a gross figure of how many jobs that will entail. We are aware that employment will be lost and the workforce will be growing. The Minister told me that the plan entails the creation of 200,000 jobs. On a television programme an hour previously, a Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, said that between 300,000 and 400,000 jobs would need to be created. That was a gross figure. I want the Minister to clarify where exactly we are on that. Are we plucking figures out of the air?

I welcome the proposal to provide for an evaluation of performance every three months. I look forward with great interest to seeing how it will work. I have no doubt the Government will say after three months that it has had success in some areas but there has been conspicuous failure in a certain Department headed by a specific Minister. We will look forward to the reports in question.

See this speech in context