Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome this initiative to allow time every year for a discussion of the Government's priorities across each sector. It forms part of the Government's Dáil reform programme which has included a more liberal and accepting attitude to Opposition and backbench amendments, longer hours, more sitting days and Friday sessions to allow backbenchers to bring forward legislation and a requirement that backbenchers and Opposition spokespeople turn up to ask their own questions and that Ministers turn up to take their own debates. While much of this has gone unnoticed, the extra teeth given to Oireachtas committees, to which the Central Remedial Clinic, the Garda Commissioner and Rehab can attest, have not gone unnoticed. Some of this has not gone down too well in this House, but I think the public likes it and wants to see more of it, as do I. While politicians should never abuse privilege or power, it is their job to hold others to account, particularly when public money or policy is involved, and they should be supported in doing so. I look forward to the Oireachtas banking inquiry commencing in the next few months. It will not be the first banking inquiry but the first to be held in public. If one spent too much time listening to late night TV and radio programmes, one would be forgiven for thinking nothing had changed in the Dáil at all, but I shall not dwell on that issue.

Since becoming Minister, I have adopted the practice of publishing my Department's priorities at the start of each year and, more importantly, following up at the end of the year with a detailed report on the progress made on each one, which is also published. I draw up the priorities in consultation with the Ministers of State, officials and advisers, having regard to the programme for Government, international obligations and the party manifestos. It is a good discipline. It sends a clear message to officials and agencies about the Government's priorities for the year and we examine progress monthly at management, board and adviser level meetings.

In politics, we are always under pressure for time and time management is often a battle between the urgent and the important. There are always fires to fight and crises to address which are urgent, but having a clear set of priorities every year enables one to deliver on a long-term programme also, which is important. My Department's responsibilities range across a few major sectors, including sport, tourism, maritime transport, aviation, roads and public transport. Priorities are, therefore, numerous and different. For 2014, there are 24 priorities, all of which are set out on the Department's website. In the time allotted to me it would be impossible to go into detail on each of them; therefore, I will confine myself to a general overview.

The first priority on each year's list is a general one, recognising the need to contribute fully to the Government's efforts to reduce the deficit, generate economic growth and increase employment. The Department will do this by coming in on budget and ensuring the policies it promotes and the money it spends, whether on capital investment or current programmes, are focused on supporting economic development and creating and protecting jobs. Too often, Departments are silos and Ministers often get sucked into them and allow themselves to be transformed into lobbyists within the Government for their particular sectors. Making this my first priority sends, I hope, a clear message that I do not intend to operate in that way and reminds me of this when, from time to time, I forget.

The creation of sustainable jobs will be one of the most important benchmarks against which the Government will and should be judged and my Department is contributing to it, directly and indirectly. The direct contribution can be seen, for example, in the dramatic turnaround in the tourism industry in the past three years, on which we will build further in 2014. There are 60,000 more people at work than there were this time last year, of whom 17,000 are in the hospitality sector. The indirect contribution will come from our work in improving transport infrastructure and air and sea connectivity, thereby increasing the attractiveness of Ireland as a place to visit, trade, set up or expand a business.

Each Minister of State in the Department is leading on several specific priorities for the various sectors. The Minister of State with responsibility for tourism and sport, Deputy Michael Ring, will take the Sport Ireland Bill through the Oireachtas - the heads of the Bill which will merge the Irish Sports Council and the National Sports Campus Development Authority have just been considered by the relevant Oireachtas committee. He will also oversee the preparation of a sports policy statement and decide on the allocations in a new round of the sports capital programme. He is also working on the promotion of the Wild Atlantic Way which we expect to make a huge contribution to building on the success of The Gathering and driving tourist numbers up once again this year. We have set a target of increasing the number of overseas visits to Ireland by 4% and revenue by 8% in 2014. The Minister of State and I are also working closely with the IRFU and other stakeholders, including the Northern Ireland authorities, to lay the foundations for a bid for the 2023 World Cup which will deliver short and long-term tourism benefits for the island as a whole.

The Minister of State with responsibility for public and commuter transport, Deputy Alan Kelly, is spearheading several important initiatives to improve public transport and promote walking and cycling as a more sustainable alternative to transport by car. He will finalise the implementation of the new rural transport programme and oversee implementation of the new Taxi Regulation Act which he took through the Oireachtas last year. The Leap card will be extended to Cork and Galway, both of which will benefit from the introduction of CityBikes in 2014, as will Limerick. He will also complete a review of the national cycle policy network and provide support for a number of flagship greenway projects. He and I are working with the National Transport Authority, Coras Iompar Éireann, Luas and other transport operators to increase the number of people using public transport by 2% this year, which equates to 5 million extra passenger journeys. This will not be easy to achieve, given the fall in numbers using public transport in recent years, but we are committed to achieving this target. To quote a former US President, we seek to do these and other things "not because they are easy but because they are hard."

My Department is one of the busiest in bringing legislation before the Oireachtas. Already this year the Oireachtas has enacted the latest legislation on road safety which includes a provision for roadside testing for drug driving, changes to the penalty points system and the introduction of novice driver plates, among other changes. As soon as one Bill on road safety is concluded, work starts on the preparation of the next. This will form part of a concerted effort to ensure the new road safety strategy which I published last year is successful in securing further reductions in the numbers of fatalities and serious injuries on the roads. Thankfully, following last year's reversal of the downward trend in the number of fatalities, the year to date is showing an improvement, but this is one area in which there is never any room for complacency.

The type of concerted approach that has been successful on the roads also needs to be taken on the seas where the casualty rate remains unacceptably high. This year I will bring forward a safety at sea strategy to reduce the number of marine fatalities and injuries. I read every Marine Casualty Investigation Board report from cover to cover and I am simply shocked at the cavalier attitude of many fisherman and recreational craft users to their own safety.

Some complain about the response of the emergency and rescue services, but, if the truth be told, in most cases, the incidents that required an emergency response should have not occurred in the first place.

I will shortly publish the State Airports Bill which will give legal effect to the establishment of the Shannon group. I intend to have the Bill enacted by the summer. In January I published the Roads Bill 2014, which deals with the merger of the National Roads Authority and the Railway Procurement Agency. I will be publishing legislation to deal with the transfer of ports to local authority control and the regulation of vehicle clamping on private property. I will also bring to the Oireachtas a Bill which was published just before Christmas to update the regime for the registration of merchant vessels.

I am working on two policy statements which are each of great significance. The first will set out a new integrated policy on aviation which is a critical industry for Ireland because of the importance to the economy of competitive air services. An extensive consultation process was carried out last year and a draft of the policy statement is being prepared. It will be published in the next couple of months to allow time for comments from stakeholders before the policy is finalised for publication in the summer. Similarly, we have engaged in an extensive consultation process on tourism policy and a detailed analysis of the responses has commenced. We aim to finalise the review in the first half of 2014 and a new detailed tourism strategy and action plan will be finalised by the end of the year.

Traditionally, my Department has been responsible for a large capital programme, but our scope to invest has been greatly constrained since the financial crisis began. PPP markets were closed off to us and the Exchequer was not in a position to plug the gap. However, construction is now under way on the first new transport PPP project in five years, the combined N11 Arklow-Rathnew and N7 Newlands Cross schemes, and I expect the N17-N18 Gort-Tuam PPP project to commence construction this year. While Exchequer funding remains tight, I have nonetheless secured just under €1 billion for capital investment this year. Priority is being given to the restoration and maintenance of regional and local roads and the public transport investment programme. I am particularly pleased to see works commencing on the Luas cross city line. I am personally chairing a high level project group involving a wide range of stakeholders that is focusing on ensuring the work proceeds smoothly, while minimising disruption and congestion in the city. I am pleased to have been able to provide funding for a substantial investment in sports infrastructure, including the development of the indoor arena at the National Sports Campus in Blanchardstown.

The Government will soon begin work on developing a capital investment programme to succeed the current one which runs to 2016. A priority for my Department this year is to complete the development of what we are calling the strategic framework for investment in land transport, the purpose of which is to ensure investment decisions in the transport sector will in the future have a much more rigorous evidence base than was the case in the past in order that we prioritise projects which will offer the greatest economic and social return for the resources we provide. The Department is also developing a low carbon roadmap which is a long-term programme to achieve significant reductions in emissions in the transport sector as a contribution to our overall national climate change strategy.

When it comes to the haulage sector, we will allow road transport operators to obtain their licences on-line, thereby saving time and money for operators and the Department. We will also make decisions on the possibility of introducing road charges for trucks linked with a reduction in motor tax and, possibly, tolls. As motor tax is a matter for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, we have established a joint working group to progress this project.

The diversity of my Department's agenda can be seen clearly in this brief overview. I am happy with the contribution we have been able to make to economic recovery in the past three years, despite the significant constraints we have faced, and I look forward to delivering another positive progress report at the end of the year.

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