Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before Deputy Harty leaves the Chamber I agree completely with his assessment of the power of rural broadband to reinvigorate and add great capacity to our rural economy. The Minister for Finance did not mention it yesterday but in a budget briefing, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, Deputy Bruton, confirmed that €120 million has been allocated in the budget for the beginning of that roll out next year and the contract for the national broadband plan roll out will be signed in the next few weeks. There is every confidence that we will begin to roll out broadband to those communities that need it and give them the opportunity to partake in the growth and strengthening of our economy no matter where they live.

We have come through a tumultuous time. In 2011 unemployment was just under 15%, a third of a million people were out of work, our national borrowings were increasing by €7 million every day and Government debt was rated one notch above junk, Ireland’s reputation as a safe place to do business was on the floor and 900 of our people left every week. Fast forwarding eight years to 2019, we are in a very different position. We have restored the economy to sustainability. We will record budget surpluses for 2018 and 2019 for the first time since 2007. We now have a very diversified enterprise and export-led economy rather than one led by a construction sector built on quicksand. Ireland now has the seventh most competitive economy in the world and the second most competitive economy in the eurozone. Our economy is being managed well, as are our public finances. We are investing more in schools, hospitals, houses and roads. Next year there will be a rise of 10% on top of the 25% rise this year. This will improve facilities for young and old throughout Ireland, urban and rural. It will ensure balanced regional development and create jobs. There are 2.3 million people employed in this country, the most people ever at work since the foundation of the State. The unemployment rate is just under 5% and continues to fall every week.

In the past two years working with employers up and down the country we have created 120,000 new jobs, over half outside Dublin city. That has been achieved through the hard work, endeavour and innovation of our people and through responsible and prudent management of the nation’s finances. This budget is yet another example of that management.

We launched our new international development policy, A Better World, last February. It provides the framework for expanding Ireland's international development work in line with the Government's commitment to reach that UN target of 0.7% of our gross national income, GNI, by 2030. We are well on our way there. Our development co-operation programme is well recognised internationally for its commitment to reducing poverty, focusing on those furthest behind. That ethos underpins everything we do in our international development work reaching those furthest behind first. The quality of the work we do in Irish Aid and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and with our partner non-governmental organisations, NGOs, here and internationally has been independently validated not alone by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD but also by the Overseas Development Institute, ODI, ranking Ireland No. 1 in the world as the most effective donor in targeting extreme poverty.

For 2020, the Government has allocated almost €838 million for official development assistance, ODA, which represents an increase of €21 million on last year. Last year, there was an increase of €110 million, the largest in more than a decade. While we were not able to make a similar commitment this year, we did the best we could in the context of the challenges we face as a result of Brexit. We are fully committed to reaching the target of 0.7% by 2030.

The sum of €838 million is a significant budgetary commitment by the Government to international development but it is also a strong reflection of our people's values. It is the sixth consecutive year in which allocations to ODA have increased and funding levels, thankfully, are now approaching pre-financial crisis levels. The additional resources will provide us with the basis to begin to grow the development co-operation programme and to deliver on the initiatives and commitments contained in A Better World. While the quantity of ODA is important and the commitment to reaching 0.7% of GNI by 2030 is equally important, ensuring that Ireland is well placed to play its role in contributing to a world that is more peaceful, stable and equal is fundamentally in everyone's best interests, including our own.

Since become Minister of State with responsibility for the diaspora, I have focused on developing the Government's support for Irish communities worldwide and for those who, thankfully, return home to Ireland every week. The Government is committed to introducing a new diaspora policy in the first quarter of next year as part of our plans to double Ireland's global footprint by 2025. Over the course of this year, I have carried out extensive consultations with Irish community leaders in Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the UK with a view towards hearing their opinions and vision as to how we can better engage with our diaspora communities throughout the world and to ensure that the just under €13 million spent annually on supporting Irish communities throughout the world will have the greatest possible effect on enriching and sustaining the communities. The feedback I have received has been positive and all the people with whom we have engaged are anxious to ensure we maintain that strong connection with all our diaspora communities internationally, who in turn work alongside us in furthering Ireland's interests at every possible opportunity.

We constantly explore new ways to foster connections with the next generation of the diaspora, as well as reaching out to those who have recently rekindled or discovered their Irish heritage. That Ireland outside, the global Irish community, is a strong influence on Ireland at home. It helps us shape our sense of ourselves, feeds into our values, and is a source of investment and pride for all of us. A long time ago, when President Robinson lit the candle in the window of Áras an Uachtaráin, it was a beacon to all our diaspora throughout the world. It was a statement of what it meant to be Irish entering the 21st century, an Irishness not rooted in a petty sense of place but one more rounded, global and inclusive, of values and not necessarily of blood. That sense of Irishness was perhaps most eloquently defined in the Good Friday Agreement, not least in its statement that those from the North have the right to be British, Irish, or both, which is why we continue to work hard to protect that agreement through every step of the Brexit negotiations.

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