Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Mairéad Farrell, Nash, Bruton, Gould, Shortall, Richmond, Buckley, Boyd Barrett, Ó Murchú, Tóibín, Mattie McGrath, O'Donoghue and Pringle for their contributions, all of which I listened to and noted. The contributions of the Opposition Deputies caused me to reflect on where we stand now regarding the challenges we face and how we have equipped ourselves to be ready for them. Opposition Deputies and my Government colleagues focused on the challenges we are currently dealing with, namely, the prospect of a no-trade-deal Brexit and the ongoing challenge we face in keeping our country safe from Covid, but while these are the challenges that are uppermost in our minds, there are, as Deputy Bruton noted in his contribution, so many other challenges approaching that will be great in scale and will require change in our society and economy but that will also create opportunities and prospects for our country that we must seek to pursue. Those challenges are great. They concern climate change, the use of technology, the changing nature of trade, and the potential for future change in respect of corporate taxation, for example, and international taxation. However, what struck me so strongly when listening to the contributions of most Opposition Deputies was that we are now in a position to borrow huge amounts of money at interest rates that are among the lowest in the European Union. There are two reasons for this, the first concerning the role of the European Central Bank and the different approach it has taken to how this crisis needs to be managed. The second concerns the creditworthiness that our country has regained because of how it managed its public finances in recent months and years. On listening to most Opposition Deputies, I noted that the very approach that has helped us in recent years to borrow at such low interest rates continues to be rejected by the Opposition today.

Deputy Gould referred to representing the people in his constituency and to their needs. I represent people in Dublin Central who have exactly the same needs. It is the case that we have been better able to protect the most vulnerable at a time of such great challenge because we entered the crisis with our public finances in strong condition and with a regained perception that Ireland is a country that is creditworthy. That has mattered in facing this challenge. As I heard the debate unfold this afternoon, it appeared to me that there were a couple of dividing lines. The first concerns those who believe the great challenge of Covid, which has caused so much death and difficulty and such harm to so many, has exposed all the weaknesses in our public services. There is little doubt but that there were many challenges within our public services to which we had to respond quickly as a result of dealing with Covid-19 but, on the other hand, we saw our gardaí, hospitals and schools all respond to the huge challenge. Even in our darkest days of Covid-19, earlier in the year, our public health services and those who work in them responded with success in helping our country to contain the terrible disease and minimise the number of people who were getting sick from it and losing their lives. Every life lost was a life lost too many, and every person who got sick due to Covid-19 was a person too many, but our public services responded in a way to help us, as a country, deal with the disease that I contend showed their strengths.

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The Opposition contends it was a demonstration of weakness and of what more needed to be done.

The other side of the argument regards the future of our economy. Speaker after speaker said, broadly, that they disagree with the rainy day fund being set up and are glad that I am not putting a deposit into it at the moment.

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