Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I held the post of jobs Minister back in 2011 and, to be fair, I think some of the characterisation of the recovery that we forged in those years that has been presented by the Opposition does not ring true with me. We built a stronger economy, a fairer economy, with a lot of really strong employment and diversified sectors, and that has to be reflected. However, I absolutely agree that the design and implementation of the next national economic plan is going to be the most critical challenge we face. We are facing a perfect storm with the decline of consumer confidence, with returns in most of our sectors dramatically down in terms of profitability, with acceleration of change distorting and putting pressure on sectors, and, of course, with the prospect of disruptive impact on our key exporting sectors.

What Ireland needs to do in this plan is not to try to recreate the economy we had last year; instead, we have to break new ground to get ahead of the trends which are reshaping our society. The big challenge in this economic plan is to show our capacity to do that and it will require bold investment measures from the Government. The crucial thing is not how much we borrow, it is what we use that money for. We have to make the right choices. If we aspire to something better than the developer-led growth which has misshaped our society in recent years, we have to put in place the tools that can deliver better, and that represents a big challenge to us. The first thing we need to do is increase the level of investment. The €9 billion that has been set aside for next year will not be enough, and it will not be enough in the years beyond that. However, we must also take steps to speed up some of the critical investments in infrastructure that need to happen very quickly. We have real problems in regard to regulatory approval and inertia in our system of getting necessary investments done. We need to adopt design, build and finance approaches, which was a part of how we designed the national broadband plan, so we can get more ambitious programmes off the ground and not just wait for the traditional ways of building. We need to be really ambitious in strategic areas of investment, be it in broadband, in digital, in renewable energy and so on, as these are going to be crucial for us.

I share the view of the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, that we have to look at our sectors in a more creative way. I agree with him that examinership is not the way to go and that we need to design much simpler and easier ways for people who are in genuine difficulties to move forward. We also need to find a way of mobilising banks, insurance companies and higher education institutions to support the structural change we will have to see in many sectors. They have tended to take a hands-off view but they have to be engaged in this because it will affect the future of their business if we do not make the right decisions.

We need to protect our success in many parts of the digital economy, in biopharma and in the globalised economy. That means addressing some of the imbalances we have seen in that globalised economy because the strength of those sectors will depend on the quality of regulation, and there is a real opportunity for Ireland to lead in quality regulation in many of these sectors.

We also have to recognise the hugely painful adjustment that is going to fall on individuals in our society and on families. That is why this is the time, as we build a national economic plan, to recognise that we need the wider concept of a new social contract, so we can recognise that the economic change has to be accompanied by social change. If we want a sustainable, fair society, we need a strong economy, but if we want a strong economy, we also need to ensure a sustainable, fair society. This is the opportunity to see those two drivers of progress in our society go in harness together.

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