James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very happy to have the opportunity to discuss public expenditure related to Covid and our economy in general. In recent weeks society, large businesses and the Government have started to come to terms with how long we will be living with the Covid-19 virus and have started to put a plan in place for how we will continue to do our business. A factor that needs to be addressed ahead of the upcoming budget is how we will continue to foot the bill for the enormous financial cost that Covid-19 has caused for our country. Many different suggestions and ideas have been proposed. The programme for Government proposes a review of the national development plan as one of the first major actions of the Government. I look forward to having an opportunity to engage with that.

Yesterday we heard some discussion on creating employment and generating an economic stimulus on a balanced regional basis through shovel-ready projects. There are many such projects in my constituency of Cork East which will need to go before the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for decision. A few minutes ago I had a phone call with the Minister for Education and Skills to discuss some of these projects within my constituency. Planning permissions, which have been controversial in many ways, for secondary schools in the Mallow area and in the Carrigtwohill area have finally been granted and are ready for tender. Having discussed this with the Minister, I am happy to report to the House that these projects should go out to tender as early as January or February of next year, which is very significant and will be a major boost to the local economy if the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will recognise that these capital projects need to be undertaken. They will be very important in creating employment in the area while also tackling some of the major social issues.

In the constituency of Cork East, which I have the honour to represent, many issues repeatedly come up. We have a major infrastructure deficit. I saw many wonderful plans as a child growing up, including Transport 21. On a regional basis, billions of euro have been allocated to the Cork metropolitan area transport strategy to address transport issues in Cork county and the metropolitan area of Cork city. The review of the national development plan, NDP, represents a great opportunity to bring many of these projects forward while borrowing is cheap. The opportunity cost of not doing anything on that would be deeply concerning. We need to look at areas that missed out when the last national development plan was put in place. I know the Minister will be putting a significant amount of effort into ensuring Deputies from all sides of the House have some degree of engagement with that.

In recent months I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, on the requirement to upgrade the road infrastructure for the town of Youghal. I know the Ceann Comhairle is very familiar with my part of the world which suffered enormous economic hardship with over 4,000 jobs lost at the turn of the millennium because of the textile industry and low-skill labour relocating to eastern Europe. There is good news out there; it is not all negative. The largest capital investment ever in the town will take place in the very near future with the EirGrid interconnector between Ireland and France. I know we will be discussing our focus on renewable energy and tackling climate change later today in the House. We need to delve into ongoing projects and figure out how places such as Youghal, Midleton and Killeagh, in my part of the world and for which I was first elected as a councillor a number of months ago, would benefit from such projects.

There has been considerable negativity by some local representatives in the constituency of Cork East over what is going on. In reality, given what is on the table and up for discussion in the coming months, it is a very exciting time for the community I represent. School projects are ongoing. We have a serious school capacity crisis in east Cork, which has been well documented. I compliment the Minister for Education and Skills on her work to date on that problem. On doorsteps during the election campaign that issue was repeatedly raised. In many cases the consequences were devastating with families needing to travel great distances to find access to secondary schools, particularly for children with special needs. Youghal, for example, has no specific autism spectrum disorder, ASD, adult education centres or day facilities. When reviewing the NDP we should look at that issue to see if funding can be found to be allocated to that area.

Unemployment is a major problem for young people. They need opportunities and we need to find work for them. Thousands of people have been returning to Ireland as we are dealing with an international economic crisis. Their livelihoods have been put into turmoil as a result.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to utilise the NDP review and this year's budget to see if we can bring home more of the people we lost in the previous recession and try to integrate them back into our society and economy. For that to happen we need to build houses, schools, hospitals and the public services that are so desperately needed. I will put my shoulder to the wheel with members of the Cabinet on that. I do not plan on wasting a single day while Fianna Fáil is in government to ensure we take every opportunity available to us. It is a great honour to be here. I am aware that there is considerable expectation on the Government to pick up from, perhaps, a rocky start. I look forward to working with the Ministers in the weeks ahead as we prepare for the budget.

2 o’clock

I thank the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, for his engagement on issues concerning Cork Airport. We had a very strong discussion on the report of the task force for aviation recovery that was undertaken by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. There is a need for a multi-departmental approach to deal with that report. It cannot be dealt with only by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It deserves a conversation at the Cabinet table. I have been in contact with many of the workers at Cork Airport, as I mentioned in the House yesterday, and they are in a very serious situation. We need to recognise how much the airports are worth annually to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in terms of the tax revenues coming in from the airline industry and the aviation sector generally. The sector helps to fund a serious number of projects that go on at a grassroots level in our economy. It is very important, where there is scope to bring in tax revenues rather than raising taxes on ordinary citizens, that concentrate to some degree on figuring out how we can recover those sectors.

See this speech in context