Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and I am sharing with Deputies O'Connor, Cahill, McAuliffe and Alan Farrell. I commend the Minister on elements of this plan but the important thing is that they are delivered upon. It would be worthwhile as we come to the first anniversary of this Government to reflect on the amount of announcements in the past 11 months and the correlation between those announcements and delivery on the ground. It is time that we did an analysis of that. Frankly, many parts of the system are not capable of delivering projects on the ground to the extent that they need to. It is worthwhile to do that and in the context of another big plan with big money, we need to ensure that the delivery mechanisms are there.

The training and education places are welcome. To echo Deputy Shortall, the detail is very important. It is, however, very important that the local employment services, LES, are involved. Current plans about privatisation or changing the mandate of the local employment services and undermining their holistic role in employment delivery are not welcome. We need to monitor that and to protect the holistic role that local employment services give around the country, particularly in the implementation of this plan and in the sourcing of opportunities for people who have lost these opportunities in recent months.

The infrastructure commitments are very welcome. I am very conscious that we have a review due on this and I am also aware that the Minister will be doing enormous work on the national development plan in the coming weeks. The Minister and I have discussed how the kinds of infrastructural developments announced yesterday in rail programmes for Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick need to be replicated. We need to see the western rail project commenced and in the national development plan. The projects announced yesterday do not have to wait for an all-island rail review and the western rail corridor should not have to wait. We need a further focus on regional development in the context of the national development plan. This should be proper regional development in the context of my remarks about the capacity to deliver.

The property tax changes, particularly for those houses with pyrite, are welcome. As Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, the Minister needs to be aware that the current defective block scheme is adding to the stress of homeowners instead of relieving it.

The requirements of the scheme are making it inaccessible and mean it will not work. We will need the Minister's support to make it work. Surely in the context of the retrofitting targets within this programme, these houses offer a perfect opportunity for funding from the SEAI.

This is a very good plan and many aspects of it are welcome, but we have to learn from the mistakes being made in the just transition programme in the midlands, which have been highlighted by many of our colleagues, and ensure they will not be repeated in the ambition of this plan. We must ensure that communities that take on the challenge of providing renewable power will be rewarded with jobs and placements, and that this plan will deliver opportunity in an equal and sustainable manner throughout the country in order that building back a better Ireland can be something real on the ground as opposed to an aspiration.

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