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

Members should listen to one another. It is a debate. I think it is extraordinary that we have come to the stage in this House that terms such as big companies in the food sector, big companies in the ICT sector or big companies in the energy sector should become terms of abuse.

This is how we sometimes regard these companies, which have created between them the economic success we have enjoyed over the past decade, having come from a difficult position. They are now regarded as pariahs in this country. The truth is that many of those enterprises that receive so little attention and are treated with contempt in this House by the Opposition are the companies that have restored our economic sovereignty and have brought us back to a position where we have 2.5 million people employed and under 5% unemployment. The truth is, which it is not popular to hear in the House it seems, that unless we have enterprise success married with social progress and environmental sustainability, we are going to fail future generations. Many Members come into this House focus solely on the perceived and, indeed, real deficiencies in our public services, but we will not be able to deliver improved public services without the robust arteries of a strong food sector led by internationally competitive companies, a strong energy sector and a strong ICT sector. These are the arteries that underpin any successful economy in this world of ours. We then have the derision with which the Opposition treats those companies.

I was privileged to work with those companies at a time the economy was on its knees. They sought new markets, found new ways of solving problems and have generated very strong tax revenues for us. We are now in a position where we can use those moneys now to address what is an unprecedented global challenge. We must pay some attention to the difficulties these companies are facing, both small and large. We have rising interest rates, supply bottlenecks that are very real, and economic difficulties in many of their key markets. Those companies that are treated with such derision in this House are the backbone of this country and we have to ensure in this coming budget that we support and make sure they can continue to thrive in very difficult circumstances.

I am a long time in this House and I have witnessed the difficult times. I have seen the havoc that has been created for small, ordinary people who have borne the brunt of political mistakes when they have been made. Members who come into this House and find only fault with the public service and look to enterprise as some pariah that should pay more miss the point. We need to have those forces in harness and, especially with the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, in the Chamber, I emphasise that environmental sustainability is a third pillar of that stool. We will not have the sort of society we want unless we can get those three pillars together: enterprise success, environmental sustainability and social progress, which can be framed by the former.

One of the other realities that emerges from the summer economic statement, which must be taken to heart, is that we cannot compensate everyone for the losses in income that have occurred as a result of the vast amounts we have to transfer abroad to pay higher commodity and energy prices. That is the sad reality.

Let us consider what is happening in other countries. Germany is now considering fuel rationing and it is debating how it will choose between keeping homes warm and keeping their industries going. That is the reality of the world we are living in. Members who say that this is a bottomless pool of money that the State should have to compensate everyone for the impact of the changes are deceiving the people. We have to be very careful and cautious in this budget and to look to where people are struggling and ensure that we support them. We also have to make sure that the decisions we make are ones that are resilient for the long term. It is not just about this year but the years ahead that will make certain that we can pass a strong society to the generations that will come after us.

I appeal to the Ministers to consider one priority above all else in the budget, which is to have a national resilience programme. Many opportunities could be seized to deliver shallow retrofits quickly, not just to the 500,000 houses that we hope to address over the coming decade, but to the 2 million households around the country, many of which are not protected by even basic retrofits or basic smart controls to allow them to cut down on their heat use. Some 1 million homes have smart meters and they are not being utilised because of general data protection regulation restrictions requiring people to opt in instead of arranging for opt out.

We are not developing the sharing platforms that could reduce our reliance on private motoring and private car ownership. We are not delivering the infrastructure to allow people to switch to electric vehicles which immediately ceases our dependence on electric vehicles. We are not taking seriously our commitment to halve food waste. Such waste is worth €700 for every household in the country. We are not helping people to make the switches between providers where well over €2,000 can be saved by helping people to switch or by changing the regulatory environment to make it more obligatory for the various suppliers to tell consumers that they are on higher payment plans than they need to be.

We must hold strong to an approach that recognises that we need mixed economy solutions to all of our challenges and not to pretend that the State is almighty and does not need the private sector to deliver success.

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