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

I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister on his handling of the public finances and in particular the flexibility that he and his Department have shown in responding to what has been a very difficult time in spending on new priorities that changed so rapidly. I recall a time when the haggling over even a few thousand euro in his Department would make one blanch but the Department has stepped up to the plate and been able not only to respond but also to come in with very solid public finances at the end.

I also welcome the opportunity to have an important end-of-year reflection on our priorities. Covid-19 has, understandably, dominated our thinking but I will speak to four important areas where I have done much work with colleagues. They are care of the child; building a circular economy strategy; securing the future of local media; and vacancy, dereliction and the opportunity to drive the revival of our town, village and urban centres. In all four areas we need to do much better because we are putting at risk resources that will be crucial to the country's well-being. We must significantly reprioritise these areas as national priorities.

It is really important we do this in a way that is well thought through. We have produced four papers on these matters and they have been developed by conducting wide public engagement, particularly with those people at the coalface. We have also produced detailed analysis of gaps and how they can be tackled by practical policy innovation. As parties in government, we must continue to be innovative and not just leave it to Ministers, good and all as their work may be. It is essential if evidence-based policymaking is to survive and thrive at a time it is under such enormous pressure by much more populist policy thinking. It is important for us to encourage and support this sort of engagement.

In the time available I will deal with the four areas only briefly. With regard to the care of the child, it is long recognised that the underdevelopment of early childhood policies in this country is selling short the coming generation and putting many people under immense pressure, including parents and women in particular, because they must make enormous sacrifices and endure much stress to manage. Those providing the services are frustrated and those running them do not know where their future lies. I welcome the changes made by the Minister in the provisions for the sector but we need genuine innovation beyond what is now being contemplated. We need to see the emergence of a campus-type approach to early childhood provision and innovative access to buildings such as schools, owned or developed by the State, where there is an opportunity to use them. Sports facilities could similarly be used. However, such provisions are simply not being made for children in early childhood. We need a new careers structure and I know the Minister is working on that. We need much more local responsiveness and a much stronger role for the county childcare committees.

I do not know how much attention the Minister has given to the circular economy, which has operated under the radar somewhat. Globally, we are using one and a half times what nature can replenish and Ireland is massively out of line in this respect. We use 60% more non-renewable materials than the rest of Europe per head of population. That is not just fossil fuels but all the other materials as well. Our recycling rate is low and falling, and it is only 10% in the crucial construction sector. Our food waste is equivalent to 1 million cars on the road in terms of climate impact and our circularity rate, which refers to how much we reuse materials to keep them in the cycle, is at 1.6%, which is the lowest in Europe except for Romania. It is one eighth of the average across Europe. We must radically change if our enterprises are to be competitive in the zero-carbon and green wave economy that will break upon us.

I will deal briefly with local media. We risk seeing the end of a diverse and reliable local media, which we have seen as having such value during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our support to the media sector is simply no longer fit for purpose and the diversity of local media is extremely vulnerable in the face of global "tall pines" in the form of social media platforms, which scorch the earth beneath. We risk seeing the end of much of the diversity of local media that gives communities their vibrancy.

There is the question of decay versus town renewal. Approximately 70,000 idle homes are within reach of public policy to activate. In the past four years we have managed to activate 1,800 of them but if all counties did as well as Waterford, we would have activated 9,000 properties. With relatively small policy changes we could make an immense difference. The town centre first policy can genuinely breathe life back into our communities if it is pursued in an innovative way.

There has been much talk across politics about the need for change. I totally agree with the constant need for change and within the Government we must demonstrate that we have that capacity in adopting new approaches like those I have outlined. There was a time when the Opposition felt the need to develop tested policies as an alternative to what is happening and they would form the basis for the contention to enter into government. We have now seen a change in that Opposition parties only seek to offer counterfeit change policies as a basis for entering government. Shameless blame games are portrayed daily by those in the Opposition and magic money appears in debates about childcare. There is a complete locking out of the private sector in the case of both the care of the child and our housing crisis. There is denial that polluters should pay and contribute to the very difficult transition we must make. Such action even goes as far as introducing a Bill banning offshore wind energy generation.

We must get real about the changes that are coming and the way we prepare for them. I wish the Minister well in his work but I ask that he would take those few suggestions on board as he plans for the next couple of years.

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