Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Governments have to deal with the crises of the day and this Government has probably faced more crises than most. Regardless of the magnitude of those crises, governments must put in place a strategy for tomorrow. To borrow a phrase, some people look at the world as it is and ask "Why?"; others look at the world as it could be and ask, "Why not?". Unfortunately, the Government has done neither.

We have reached the end of the era of hydrocarbons but we have no alternative in place. Exploration off our west coast has been banned and, instead, we import gas in tankers, thereby increasing its carbon footprint. We talk about offshore wind energy but, as yet, there is no strategy in place into which investors can buy. A Minister in one Department talks about solar energy, while a Minister of State in the same Department wants to start a trade war with the only country in which solar technology is manufactured.

We talk about anaerobic digestion, which the EU tells us we are well suited to, but we missed the deadline to apply for funding. We have also reached the end of the era when we can use corporation tax to fund our economy. Those taxes are, rightly or wrongly but increasingly successfully, claimed by others as theirs. Instead of using that bounty to develop health infrastructure, we failed to do so and the trolleys mount up.

We failed to put public transport infrastructure in place to take people out of cars, which is what we want to do. As we celebrate the centenary of the State, we must acknowledge the reality that there was better public transport infrastructure in place a century ago relative to its time and, perhaps, it was better in actual effect. If and when the Government starts to put a strategy in place to deal with tomorrow and the next decade, it will have my support; until it does, I cannot support this Government.

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