Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Higgins mentioned propaganda and asked what people say when I meet them. They tell me that they appreciate that the country is moving to a far stronger position than it has been in for quite a number of years, but that they do not feel it in their personal daily lives yet. We must continue to grow our economy to a point where that happens. That means urban and rural must feel the benefit of the sacrifices the people have made. We do not live in any sort of fool's paradise about this. People with real problems approach me and every other Deputy in the House every day of the week.

There are signs of confidence, however. Interest rates have fallen from 15% to less than 2%, unemployment has come down from 15% to just over 11% - and will reach the tens in the next month or so - and consumer confidence is at a higher rate than it has been at for many years. The Government has been able to reduce income tax for the first time in seven years while avoiding any tax increases or cuts in services. That means we are now at the start of a phase of giving back to the most vulnerable and pressurised by returning money to their pockets and giving them choices about where they want to spend it. It is not all about the very wealthy or the major corporations. I came back from America on Saturday morning and the people who work for the airline tell me that Aer Lingus flights are all full on the way out and back to New York, Boston and San Francisco. The tourism industry in New York tells me that the numbers of bookings by Irish people are very much up from what they were. There has been a return to substantial purchases of new cars in July, August and September. These are not by very wealthy people but by ordinary people who have managed to see with greater clarity what lies ahead. What lies ahead is a 1% income tax reduction next year and the year after and, depending on the choice of the people at an election, the year after that.

The major corporations will be subject to a changed regime, with a transition period extending to 2020, through the ending of the double Irish. The Government made a decision on this matter in the recent budget and the stateless concept was ended last year. Ireland continues to play its part, with the OECD, in having the base erosion and profit shifting concept as an international response to a global phenomenon.

At 6 a.m. last Friday, BMS, a major global pharmaceutical company, notified the New York Stock Exchange of its decision to invest €1 billion in Deputy Higgins's constituency. The investment will result in the employment of 1,000 construction workers for three years and, thereafter, of between 400 and 500 top-class specialist research engineers dealing with products dealing with cancers that will emerge on the basis of BMS data. The company will supply the world from the location in question. This investment sends a major signal following the ending of the double Irish because BMS has expressed its confidence that this country measures up. It is appropriate that we should say this to the IDA and its personnel. I met representatives of BMS in September and the work that has been done in the meantime will directly benefit the economy of Deputy Higgins's constituency. I hope that, in one way or another, many of the people who have had a difficult time will be able to avail of the greater economic spread that will arise from the BMS decision to make a €1 billion investment in the constituency represented by Deputies Higgins and Coppinger, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health. These jobs are very welcome.

I am not happy that rural areas have not felt the economic benefits they should have felt. I hope they will do so. This is the reason the Government proposed, in its Common Agricultural Policy programme last year, to allocate approximately €2.5 billion for rural development between 2014 and 2020. The programme has been submitted to the European Commission and I expect it to be approved. It will provide significant opportunities for Leader and community and voluntary groups, with the local authorities, to create jobs in communities throughout the country.

In reducing the level of VAT in the hospitality sector and abolishing travel tax the Government made a clear decision which sustained the hospitality industry and created 35,000 new jobs. Real opportunities are available.

Next Monday, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources will set out a programme for the development of broadband throughout the country by the private and State sectors. This is a fundamental priority for the Government because companies require broadband capacity to do business effectively. These developments and the announcements made on major motorway connections, for example, the opening of the Newlands Cross junction today and the Gort to Tuam motorway project, as well as other road projects in Wexford and elsewhere, are investments and improvements that will result in construction works and job opportunities and benefit the economies of many counties. We still have a long way to go, however.

To answer Deputy Higgins's question, people tell me they have put up with a great deal and while they know the country is in a stronger position than it was, many of them have yet to feel the benefit of this in their homes and personal lives. This is what we want to achieve and the Government's strategy will be to continue to give back what we can to hard-pressed communities and provide opportunities for employment and job creation such as those we discussed.

See this speech in context