Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to discuss the stability programme update. I thank Deputies from all sides who contributed to the debate.

I would like first to address Deputy Mary Lou McDonald's concern in regard to a point made by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton. I will attempt to reiterate the point he was making, which is an important one, namely, that nobody in this House has a monopoly of concern for the well-being of the Irish people. There is much talk about new politics. The best way to approach new politics would be for each of us to accept each other's bona fides. Everybody in this House wants to see our housing crisis tackled, people to have jobs, mortgage arrears to be tackled and the benefits of economic recovery shared. We will debate vociferously and rigorously in terms of how best to do that, which is the point the Minister, Deputy Bruton, was making. It is a point we should all accept as we embark on the Thirty-second Dáil.

It is important to acknowledge and accept what this stability programme update is and is not. It is a technical document which we are legally required to submit to Europe. When we were a programme country we were not required to submit it so the fact that we are submitting it is a sign of the economic progress that Ireland is making. This document is not a budget or a spring economic statement, which are matters for the incoming Government. I echo the comments of the Tánaiste and others that the incoming Government will be put in place shortly so that we can put in place the policy measures that Deputies have rightly referred to as policy measures one would expect to see in a spring economic statement and a budget. Policy matters and we need to get into the meat of those discussions.

The data provided in this stability programme update show the great economic progress that has been made. There is a recognition from all sides that such progress has been made. The challenge for the incoming Government and the Thirty-Second Dáil is to make that recovery felt in every home and community in every part of the country. The message which I picked up on the doorsteps during the general election campaign, which message I am sure other Members also picked up, is that people realise there is an economic recovery but they need to feel it in their lives. That is our collective challenge, and a particular challenge for the incoming Government.

My colleagues, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, spoke earlier about the statistics in this document. They are not the Government's statistics, they are the facts. This is not how we tell our story to the world, as some asserted, this is the truth. These are the economic positions in which our country finds itself. The statistics provided are endorsed by the independent Fiscal Advisory Council. It is important to reiterate a point made by other Deputies, namely, economic recovery has not come about without significant sacrifice and pain on the part of the Irish people. Economic recovery was not easy. It hurt people and caused people pain. People had to make sacrifices. We do not need to be patted on the head by various economic institutions or European authorities and told we are great boys and girls. It was painful. The challenge now is to ensure the hard won fruits of the structural reforms of the outgoing Government, supported by the Irish people, are felt by every family.

It is important to also acknowledge that the recovery has bee job-rich. This is beginning to make a real impact on people's lives. We ensure economic recovery is felt by everybody through employment.

We have seen an additional 140,000 people in work in Ireland since the launch of the Government's Action Plan for Jobs initiative in early 2012. I hope the incoming Government will continue that mechanism of an action plan for jobs. In response to Deputy Dara Calleary's points, I hope the incoming Government will acknowledge the need to spread it to all parts of the country through the new regional Action Plan for Jobs.

I take the point Deputy Peadar Tóibín made about corporation tax. I know that this is an issue he has raised and accept his bona fides on it. In a letter to the Minister for Finance published on the Department of Finance's website we have seen the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners acknowledge that it is not seen as cyclical but as sustainable. However, the Deputy is right. This House and any new committee need to monitor the position carefully.

This will be a real test of new politics. "New politics" cannot just be buzzwords. It is going to move to choices and a new budget committee. It is going to involve Deputies debating how we want to spend the limited extra resources available to us. That is not what the SPU is about. It is about the facts. The next phase of the debate is about policy. That is a debate I hope we can get to very quickly.

The final point I wish to make is that we are not balancing the books for the sake of it. Balancing the books is not something one does for the fun of it or to have a bit of craic. One balances the books to have resources in case there are external shocks such as Brexit or anything else in order to continue to provide services such as the State pension, for the minimum wage and the extra investment in services that we need. Balancing the books and being concerned about debt-to-GDP ratios are not issues that should be dismissed as something about which the Government and civil servants care. They matter to working class people, as Deputy Mary Lou McDonald likes to put it, and the people she wishes to represent.

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