John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Deputy Anthony Lawlor.

Some in the House might presume Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett and I are diametrically opposed politically. I would not dispute that to a certain extent, but I believe his point on the lack of a regional focus in this legislation is correct. There is no such focus. That two people might be diametrically opposed politically does not mean that they cannot both look at legislation and spot a flaw. There is a flaw in this legislation and the Deputy has pointed it out. I will now do so.

Usually, when a Government Deputy speaks on legislation, he starts by welcoming it. I cannot welcome this Bill because, in its current form, it has a massive problem. While the logic behind the measure is understandable, the omissions from the legislation are a problem. In other words, it actually has the potential to make matters worse economically in certain parts of the country. This is because the distribution of investment across the country is massively imbalanced and there is nothing in the legislation to counteract that growing imbalance. What is worse for me is that, after months of pointing this out on the floor of the House and at meetings of the Committee of Public Accounts and elsewhere, no one in government seems to give a damn. There are parts of the country that have seen almost no foreign direct investment or substantial State investment in the past ten or 15 years.

We now have the legislative framework for a strategic investment fund for what is to all intents and purposes a national stimulus package that might amount to €15 billion, if we are lucky. It is structured without any consideration for the fact that cities such as Waterford and other urban areas, in particular, around the country are on their knees economically. Today there will be an announcement of a further 200 job losses in the city of Waterford, to which I will allude.

The problem that obtains is actually a lot worse than one that a government does not have any money and cannot spread it around. In this case, the Government finally has some money, but it is choosing not to invest it where it is needed the most. It is fair to say that while we may be experiencing an economic recovery of sorts, we are not experiencing an evenly spread recovery across the country. Dublin has outpaced everywhere else in increasing economic activity, followed by Cork, Galway and, to a lesser extent, Limerick. Outside these urban areas, ordinary businesspeople and taxpayers generally are of the view that the Government has resigned itself to the fact that this is just the way it is. It is believed that as long as the underlying figures for the country as a whole are decent, it is acceptable. The truth is that parts of the country are still in recession or, at the very best, stagnating economically. All I have to do to confirm this is look at the CSO property figures published yesterday. Prices in Dublin rose by 3.1% in April, while there was a fall of 0.3% in prices outside the capital in the same month. It is the same old story. A few weeks ago Teagasc produced a good report on the economic strength of rural towns, the upshot of which was that rural towns had been focused on much less in national development strategies in the past decade and a half.

With regard to development strategies generally, the Government has correctly focused on regaining our international reputation by attracting outside investment. A good job has been done in that regard. The Minister for Finance has been central to this and has done a very good job. However, if we are in recovery mode, our recovery has become imbalanced, perhaps through no one's fault. Any new investment in the country has occurred exactly where it is needed least, namely, Dublin, Cork and Galway — three urban locations where 82% of foreign direct investment ended up in the past 20 years.

When I read about the NTMA-controlled National Pensions Reserve Fund, totalling €6.8 billion, being turned into a commercial investment fund to be matched by €6 billion to €7 billion in private investment, the obvious question is whether anybody considered that some of the money should have been earmarked for the areas worst affected by the recession. The answer is a resounding "No" time and again, as the Bill confirms. When I asked the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform about this recently, he confirmed that there was no regional angle or perspective and that, as far as he was aware, no consideration of a regional impact. He then said something very interesting, namely, that when his Department examined Exchequer funding and PPPs, it had regard to spread from the political world in which money was allocated. My take on what he said — we all know it — is that nobody inserted regional considerations into this legislation, but, when it comes down to it, anything is possible if there is the political will. The reality is that money is spent and things happen based on the location of Ministers' constituencies. That phenomenon is alive and well under the Government. It is fair to say money is still being allocated not on the basis of need but on the basis of political influence. The Bill proves this again. As far as I can see, no account is being taken in government collectively — I know this — of where money has or has not gone in the past and where it should or should not go in the future. The Department of Finance should ascertain where the investment in State finances has occurred in the past ten or 15 years and where employment rates are at their lowest. It should consider a policy of domestic investment in the areas that need most assistance. The Government could start again with this Bill. It is effectively a stimulus package, but it is structured in such a way that 90% of the €6.8 billion in State money could end up being invested exclusively in Dublin. That could make things a lot worse for other parts of the country.

I raised this matter in the House a few weeks ago as a Topical Issue. What I received in response was patronising palaver. I have looked back at the speech made in response by the Minister of State who was here on the day. The part that was particularly galling — perhaps its authors are in the Chamber today — was the statement that "there will not be any parameters set for regional distribution." The next line was: "It must be said that no region will be excluded." It was the kind of cute, smarmy terminology that I really detested.

The Minister of State proceeded to characterise my contribution as a "gross distortion" - he said it twice, but nothing I said was a distortion. There is a massive imbalance when it comes to deciding where investment should be made in the country. The Bill amounts to the first stimulus package the country has seen in six or seven years, yet it ignores completely the obvious imbalance. Frankly, we have moved beyond whether people in the regions think there is an imbalance. They know it. Whether the Government thinks what I have said is a gross distortion is beside the point; in the local elections last Friday the people of my area registered what they thought about what I had been saying and what the Government had been doing about it. Last week there were seven Fine Gael and Labour Party councillors in Waterford city; today there is one. People in Waterford are living with the reality of the imbalance about which I am talking. If the Department is going to respond to what I have said a second time, I suggest it not use the word "gross" or "distortion", or attempt to tell me I do not know what I am talking about. It might consider that IDA Ireland has accepted that regional aid guidelines do not work and have not worked, that there is an acceptance that investment is even around the country and that Departments collectively need to consider ways to deal with this glaring economic fact.

The Bill needs to be amended. Money needs to be earmarked or set aside from the figure of €6.8 billion for the areas that need it the most. There are a lot of action plans but very little action. I am off to meet the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, for the second time today, with IDA Ireland. The problem with IDA Ireland is that the concept of "business as usual" is not working. There comes a time when we have to ask the question whether it ever will work with the existing personnel and approaches in the agency. The people of Waterford were not saying last Friday that the Government was not working hard enough or that they had forgotten who had caused the economic mess. All they were saying, in some respects, was: "Hello. We exist in the south east, but you have forgotten about us." They want to know what the Government intends to do next. This is emphasised by what has again happened today, with hundreds of job losses in Waterford city. This legislation, unfortunately, demonstrates they have a point. The Government needs to consider what I am saying and act. A starting point would be to amend the Bill appropriately. Money from the Strategic Investment Fund needs to be diverted to where it is needed most.

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