Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have to start by commenting on the timing of this spring economic statement. It is the first time that we are witnessing this kind of statement in the Dáil with three days dedicated to debating it. Spring is the operative word here to give the illusion to people that there is a turn in the tide, a new arrival, a new beginning. However, this is really a campaign launch, a programme for Government announcement, an election promise with a caveat for people not to hope for too much because that would be economically irresponsible.

It took the Government 57 long minutes to say that yesterday, whereas I have said it in just a few seconds. This rhetoric only serves to anger people, especially when they hear the Government's claim that austerity is over and we are entering a post-austerity economy.

Talking to people in my constituency in Donegal, or elsewhere in rural Ireland, one can see that austerity is not over for them. What people wanted to see this week was something more like a socio-economic statement, including a commitment by the Government to reinvest in public services, social policy and social justice principles - an investment in people.

There are a lot of points conveniently missing from this statement that are inextricably linked to economic reform. There was no mention of crises in housing, mortgages or hospitals, nor higher rates of poverty and lower quality of work.

Just look at the issues around employment. Although employment levels have increased, the quality of such employment has decreased since austerity began to kick in. These effects will be felt for many years to come.

Just look at the figures. There are 272,000 fewer full-time jobs in Ireland today compared to 2007, which is a drop of 15%. The number of people in part-time jobs is 55,700 higher than in 2007, an increase of 14%. More than a quarter of part-time workers are under-employed, which is 115,500 people. In addition, between 2010 and end-2014 the number of long-term unemployed fell by 48,700 but in the same period the net loss of Irish people to emigration was 123,800. Some 58% of those unemployed are long-term unemployed, that is, for more than one year.

The previous speaker mentioned how unemployment among the under-25s has reduced significantly in the last year. However, there are no figures for how many of those under-25 have emigrated or how many have got decent jobs.

Unemployment continues to be a real issue for rural Ireland where workers are in increasingly precarious working arrangements. There is what we call the new Irish low, the "precariat". These are people experiencing low pay, low hours, insecure contracts and lack of job security. Unpaid internships and schemes like JobBridge only exacerbate the idea that workers are replaceable.

I recently did a search on the JobBridge website to see how many jobs are advertised in Donegal. There were about 61. When I went through them in detail, however, at least 40 of them were actual jobs that should have been advertised rather than being for JobBridge interns and low-pay workers for nine months. They should be real jobs, not unpaid ones.

Seasonal workers are part of the "precariat" group and I encounter their issues every day in my constituency office. They are bounced around the social welfare system and become demoralised as a result. They have experienced numerous cuts in their payments and are constantly facing uncertainty. Since the cutbacks started, conditions for seasonal workers have worsened, especially in areas like Killybegs where fishing is the main seasonal employer.

Apart from there being less work, it is getting harder for seasonal workers to access social welfare payments. Such payments enabled them to remain in their local communities between seasons. The irony of all this is that the more difficult it is for seasonal workers to stay in their areas and maintain themselves, the more difficult it will be for businesses to hire workers. There is consequently a knock-on effect.

According to the spring economic statement, the Government's primary focus will be on sustainability. So why are we not seeing a real investment in sustainable rural jobs and sustainable advances in renewable energy like biomass? IDA-funded jobs are all the rage, but they mean that migration to larger towns or cities is increasing. This might look good for headline employment levels, but it is bad news for rural areas and is therefore not sustainable.

We need to build on local industries and I have already mentioned biomass. If we invest in supply chains that feed into local demand and supply, the knock-on effect in rural Ireland will be felt far more than through any IDA-sponsored plants that come along offering a few hundred temporary jobs.

Renewable energy jobs, like biomass, would stay in the locality and permeate into other industries. They would create a virtual cycle, reducing our dependence on imported fossil fuels and creating a sustainable local economy that creates more jobs.

Continued investment in broadband is essential in creating sustainable rural jobs. Such investment would mean that those in rural areas could create their own work by having access to proper broadband coverage. The creative industries were mentioned earlier in the debate. Some years ago, the Western Development Commission published a report which estimated that up to 18,000 jobs could be created in the creative industries in the north-west alone, simply by improving access to e-commerce and Internet coverage. Yet we are still waiting for the roll-out of the national broadband scheme. Broadband coverage is still inadequate across County Donegal and some areas will not receive better coverage before 2016. More isolated communities and rural areas will be last to see any development in broadband infrastructure, but if we are serious about investing in rural Ireland we need to focus on all communities.

We wonder why emigration has been so high, especially in rural areas. There is a lot of talk in this Chamber about emigration and how it is a measure of how well the economy is doing. It is not all about money when people are trying to return to Ireland. People are leaving because of a better quality of life abroad, which Ireland has been unable to provide. They are leaving due to a better quality work abroad with better conditions and greater certainty, not necessarily for better paid work.

Why would nurses return here to take up jobs in a completely overrun health system where they are totally undermined and see no future in it? They can go abroad and get better work and conditions, a better standard of living and a better quality of life. Furthermore, it has become unaffordable to live in Ireland. Doctors and nurses are leaving as they are tired of the burdens of an under-invested health care system which perpetuates and exploits inequality by prioritising those who can afford health care over those who need it. We have already said goodbye to a proper primary care system in the lifetime of this Government.

I also wish to refer to the issue of transparency in the budgetary process. The Government claims that the national economic dialogue will include civil society groups in that process. This is a positive development, especially the establishment of an independent costings office, but we will not see any of this in the lifetime of this Government.

Will the national economic dialogue between the Government and civil society involve a deliberative democratic process? Will it mean civil society will have a real impact on the decision-making process? We do not know anything more about this because, once again, the details were not given in the statements.

We can see in the statements that there is little clarity in the Government's budgetary projections and there are concerns about its calculation. For example, in the stability programme update, Irish Water has been provisionally classified as being "within government", pending the anticipated agreement of EUROSTAT to regard its transactions as being commercial. The net impact on the general Government balance is €380 million on average from 2014 to 2020. If EUROSTAT agrees to classify the operations of Irish Water as commercial, this will reduce further the projected Government expenditure.

The budgeting process outlined in the statements presents a warning sign - a commitment to splitting resources 50:50 between expenditure and tax cuts, while calling it an equal measure. As Social Justice Ireland has noted, one third of additional resources should go into tax reduction and two thirds into expenditure increases.

Overall, if we want to see fairness in the budgetary process we need to see a budgetary policy that reflects Ireland's economic, social and cultural rights and obligations. We need at least a minimum level of protection for all economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to social welfare, health care, education and an adequate standard of living which includes housing. These rights must be guaranteed to all our citizens and progressively built upon. It is the only way that governments like this one can be held properly accountable during budgets, policy drafting and the decision-making processes.

We need to enshrine these rights in the Constitution to ensure that future spring economic statements like this one do not make empty promises to the public and are more than just the launch of an election campaign.

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