Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

What we do now after the bailout has to be guided by four principles. First, we need a sustainable prosperity. Too many of our people still do not have work, or do not have enough work. We have to create more and better jobs. Second, we need a shared prosperity, which means that we have to invest in our people and ensure that recovery is spread across society, and across the regions.

Third, we need to maintain a threshold of decency, as we have done for the past three years, and ensure nobody is left behind. Fourth, we must commit ourselves to tolerance and freedom at home and promoting Irish values abroad.

Having achieved the goal of exiting the bailout, we must now focus on our next objective, full employment. The medium-term economic strategy sets the objective of reducing unemployment to below the eurozone average this year and below 10% by 2016. By 2020 we aim to return the economy to full employment by increasing employment to 2.1 million, thereby replacing all of the jobs lost during the crisis. In the first instance, we must work to ensure a balanced recovery by doing more to promote the domestic economy. We have made it clear that the construction sector must be a major priority. We cannot go back to the days of the bubble, but the construction sector is now operating at well below normal output. It has the potential in the next five years to create some 60,000 jobs and in so doing provide the houses, offices, factories and infrastructure the country needs. In the coming weeks the Government will finalise our construction strategy and make its implementation a core priority for the year ahead.

Despite the crisis, we live in a fast-changing global economy. Technology is creating new products and economic sectors at a rapid pace. Today thousands of Irish people work in sectors that did not exist ten years ago. The centre of economic gravity is shifting to the east and billions of new workers and consumers are coming into the global trading system. We can either see these trends as threatening or as opportunities. The Government is determined that in the year ahead we will do more to lay the foundations for the future prosperity of the country.

We will expand the network of embassies and consulates abroad and enhance the staffing of Enterprise Ireland in key markets. Following the review of the export trade strategy, we will redouble our efforts to open up new opportunities for Irish exporters in priority markets and continue to work for greater co-ordination through the local market teams. It is not often appreciated that the diplomatic corps are often the first "boots on the ground" when it comes to opening up new markets to Irish firms. In January I announced the opening of new missions and consulates in a number of markets, including further development of our presence in the United States, reconfiguration of our approach in Africa and new missions to emerging markets such as Indonesia. However, it is not enough for us to open up new markets. We must develop the companies that can create new products and services to sell into these markets. That is why the Action Plan for Jobs has a particular focus on facilitating new start-ups and assisting firms to make the transition from focusing on the domestic economy to exporting products overseas. New firms and sectors need finance. The Government has established NewEra and the strategic investment fund on an administrative basis and in the coming weeks we will bring forward legislation to put both entities on a statutory footing. We will put €6 billion of the State’s resources into the strategic investment fund, with the task of investing in areas of strategic significance to the economy. We will also work to implement the proposals in the medium-term economic strategy for credit availability, including both bank and non-bank finance. As part of this approach, we are hopeful the strategic investment fund will be able to work with the German Bank KfW to enhance the flow of credit to Irish SMEs.

The prosperity we seek must be sustainable, but it must also be shared. Across the world Ireland has been noted for the fact that social solidarity and industrial peace have been hallmarks of the way we have tackled the crisis. They must also be built into the design of the economy that emerges from the ashes of the crisis. Already the Government has embarked on a far reaching reform of the social welfare and training systems which we call Pathways to Work. The fundamental principle of our reform is that everyone should have the opportunity to learn and work in our society. The first day of unemployment should be the first day of a journey back to work, through training education and work experience. In the year ahead we will continue to roll out Intreo offices and in the next few weeks we will publish the first ever five year strategy for the further education and training system which will prioritise retraining the unemployed to take up opportunities in economic recovery.

We will also continue to work to address the question of high personal debt, a burden that continues to weigh on thousands of families. We have made enormous changes in the regime for dealing with personal insolvency, but we must keep working to address this problem. In the coming months we will monitor the extent to which banks are meeting their mortgage arrears targets and will not let up until this problem is addressed. The problem of personal debt is just one manifestation of an economy where people have seen a dramatic reduction in their living standards. For the Labour Party, higher living standards and a better quality of life for working people are at very heart of our politics. What we have learned in the past few years is that higher living standards must be built on firm foundations.

It is important that we maintain an atmosphere of industrial peace and an industrial relations structure where issues can be resolved through discussion and negotiation. To that end, the Government is bringing through legislation to reform the workplace relations institutions and we will shortly bring forward legislation on collective bargaining rights.

The people have been through a period of profound economic crisis, but even so, society has not stood still. Important social issues cannot be put to one side while the crisis is addressed. That is why we have worked to maintain a threshold of decency, despite the many painful measures which have been necessary to get the economy back on the road to recovery, and have restored the minimum wage and taken 330,000 people out of the USC net. That is why we are bringing important reforms to make our system of government more open and transparent, extending the power of the Ombudsman and expanding the scope of freedom of information legislation. We are working to update our laws to reflect the modern Ireland, including the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, the forthcoming transgender Bill and our determination to put the case to the people for the right of same sex couples to marry.

Ireland’s foreign policy is an essential element of the Government’s work. It is the means by which we promote our values and pursue our interests abroad. Through it, we pursue Ireland’s economic prosperity and promote peace and security, both at home and in the wider world. Our foreign policy is also a statement of who we are as a people. It projects an image which shapes how others see us and engage with us. Following our successful EU Presidency last year, the chairmanship of the OSCE in 2012 and having exited the EU-IMF programme, we now have an opportunity to reflect on the future direction of our foreign policy, the values and interests we seek to promote through it and how it contributes to achieving Government objectives. That is why, last October, I initiated a review of Ireland’s foreign policy and external relations. As I said, our external environment and the international system in which we operate are experiencing rapid change. The shift of economic and political power and influence from the west to the east and the south is changing the way the world looks and works. We must keep up with these changes if we are to ensure our continuing prosperity and well-being as a country. Many of today’s challenges such as cyber security, climate change and migration are not defined by borders and regions but require global solutions. The fast moving pace of the global economy and the need to keep pace with technological change and innovation are also factors with which we are familiar. The purpose of the foreign policy review is to provide an updated statement of Ireland’s foreign policy and external relations and identify a series of recommendations for its conduct. What will not change, however, is our clear commitment to our aid programme which we have maintained, despite enormous budgetary pressures, or our commitment to a foreign policy based on human rights and international law.

Our ongoing engagement with Northern Ireland will continue to be central to the work of the Government in the year ahead. The peace which was hard earned can never be taken for granted. Northern Ireland is a priority for me, my Department and the Government. In our contacts with the British Government and political leaders in Northern Ireland we will continue to stress the importance of their support for full implementation of all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, including a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, an Irish language Act and the establishment of a civic forum. Implementation of all key provisions is essential to the integrity and balance of the whole. I commend Dr. Richard Haass and Dr. Meghan O’Sullivan for their work with the political parties in Northern Ireland in the lead up to the new year. I hope the political parties will be able to build on this work. Their efforts will have the support of both the Irish and British Governments.

This is a Government that came to office at a time of profound national crisis. We have faced into that crisis; we have refused to run away from it and are succeeding in what we set out to do. No one claims for one minute that we have achieved everything we set out to do, but our work is continuing. We will face into the coming year with the same determination and commitment to create jobs and restore the economy that have brought us in the past three years from crisis to recovery.

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