Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to say a few words on this very important budget. It is important in the sense that this is the first budget in many years that does not impose penalties on the people. It comes after a long period of hardship borne patiently by people at all levels in society. It was not just at one level but right across the board. It was the patience, forbearance and tenacity of those people that brought us to this stage. Without that, we would not have seen this day.

This budget is progressive. It is the first step in repairing the damage that had to be inflicted on our population in the past eight or nine years. Many people say there was no need for that. It is a mantra regularly repeated that there was no need for all the hardship and that it could have been done much easier. That is wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth. We were very lucky in 2011 and 2012 that we did not wake up one morning to find the IMF in Government Buildings renegotiating and reorganising our finances, as happened in a number of other countries. For those who said that we should follow the example of a number of countries and not pay anything at all, I am afraid that history and events have shown that was not the way to go. A huge price has already been paid by those who followed that path and they will continue to pay for their choices for many years to come.

It has been a difficult time for many people. All Deputies experienced that in dealing with constituents at all levels. Every family in this country was affected negatively in one way or another in recent years. It was an awful situation. What people endured should serve as a reminder to never allow a recurrence of the events that came to pass. To those who say that we should splash money around, that everything is alright, that the garden is rosy, that the time is now and that we have recovered from everything, I say that we need to be awfully careful that we do not slip back into that place again. Many people think it is simple to say that we have recovered and should spend as we did before. It is not that way and it does not work that way. We live in a competitive world in which we have to fend for ourselves, make the best decisions for ourselves and provide for our own futures because it is a harsh place if things go wrong.

There are many people who have given speeches in the House, not only in the past couple of days but also the past couple of years, to the effect that we should go back to the old ways, namely, to protectionism and a protected society. The late former Taoiseach Seán Lemass moved away from that back in the 1960s, changed everything and developed a competitive society by means of which we were able to compete on our own. IDA Ireland and all of the other organisations concentrated on competing in a world market and moved away from the old days of protectionism, when as a small country we were always going to be at the bottom of the scale. People say this is all wrong and that we should change it, go back and try again. However, that is an experiment in which we should not engage.

There are those who say that we should get rid of our currency - that we should get rid of the euro and go back to the old ways. I am afraid that going back to the old ways is not an option. I hope we have learnt that sad and harsh lesson in recent years and that said lesson is adequate to ensure that we never go back to the old ways. I want the compliment all members of the Government and the Opposition for being helpful and supportive in reconstructing our society because that is what we have to do.

I am not going to go into the matter in detail but, as we know, there is an appalling problem with housing in this country. That problem must be dealt with and it must be dealt with now. It will not be easy and there will be no overnight solution. However, it will be dealt with and I believe the Government is going the right way about it.

Rural Ireland has been mentioned on numerous occasions, as well as broadband, communications, transport and post offices.

Some Members of this House have been members of local authorities. We should all remember that one of the first requirements towards ensuring services remain throughout the country is a growing population throughout the country. If we stop planning permission in rural Ireland, there will be no need for post offices, schools, banks or services in rural areas. That is not what we want. We want to distribute our population, and the wealth we hope to grow in the future, throughout the country so that everyone will be able to benefit and contribute to its making.

The area of health has also suffered dramatically over the past number of years. We have at last come to the stage of having an opportunity to do something about it. I hope we have learned the lessons. I am not criticising past Ministers or past Governments, but in the past we emulated what they did next door on the next island. This was the wrong thing to do, but whenever it failed over there, we seemed to pick it up. Some years back, they decided to concentrate large institutions and hospitals in particular areas and draw the whole population towards them. It did not work, but then we started doing it. Health economists come along from time to time and tell us that is how we should do it here. It is not; it failed. It is already old economics. It does not work.

We also need to remember the population of the country is almost double what it was in 1956. That is huge. There were hospitals, institutions and services throughout the length and breadth of the country that we had inherited from the previous administration. We have to build a new economy around the requirements of the people and deliver the services to them. We are on the right track and we are going to do it.

The question of broadband has been referred to already. It is a huge issue. Like road transport and rail transport, it is a communications issue. It has the ability to enable employment to be generated throughout the country without reference to any boundaries, good, bad or indifferent. When it comes to education, health and business, this is the way we need to go. If we develop it properly, and I am convinced we are going the right way about it now, we will do it.

No debate at this time should conclude without reference to Brexit. I heard many of the comments to the effect that there is nothing in the budget about Brexit. We do not know what Brexit will mean yet. We do not know what will emerge. It is remarkable that politicians made a decision, the outcome of which was not known at the time. There was speculation but that speculation was wrong. At no given point could anyone have concluded what the outcome would be. Now there is a problem and the Ceann Comhairle and I well know, as does everyone else in this Chamber, that we better work hard at it. It is a challenge the likes of which we have not had before.

For those who say we were able to handle all this in the old days, we heard that before too. This is not the old days. Times have changed. We are now in a competitive worldwide economy. Putting up barriers, gates and crash barriers to stop trade from happening worldwide will not work. The reason is simple: everyone depends on producing and selling more goods efficiently and effectively. We are as good as anyone else at it. Proof of it is that when our people, sadly, had to emigrate over many years, they succeeded in the land of their choice. They were well able to do it and compete with anyone else. They did not look for any handouts; they were able to do it themselves.

The world is our oyster. It is up to ourselves. We should not squander what we have and what we have striven to hold. We should not squander the sacrifices we have made. We should make them count, take them on board, and recognise the sacrifices that were made and the cost to the people. Now is our opportunity to repair the social end of our society that had to be neglected and that many times was visited upon over the past number of years and threatened. We have an opportunity now to deliver to all of the people in our country in an equal way that will be cohesive, helpful and beneficial to the economy and our society.

Budget 2017 is the first step in that direction. I hope it is the first of many. I also hope that the degree of co-operation that has brought this about will be seen by the Irish people as a means of restoring public confidence in the system.

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