Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Taoiseach on his elevation. I also congratulate his new Front Bench members and wish them all the best in their new roles. We have heard many times over the past two weeks of the soul-searching and renewal in which the Taoiseach's party is currently engaging. I wish his new ministerial line-up every good fortune. I say that sincerely, as one hopes their success in bringing new direction and management to their respective portfolios can only benefit our national population.

I remind the Taoiseach of some of the touchstones that he has mentioned and that have been to the core of his party's values. First is the idea that his party is the party of enterprise, one that runs a tight ship and that offers thrifty governance to produce a more flexible competitive economy, one that can offer opportunity but which also recognises the value of work and the value of the worker.

I am not going to provide a dissertation on whether I believe in the past four years the Taoiseach's party has delivered on these ideals. As he reshapes his party in government, however, I encourage him to devote concentrated effort to the following points I make as an elected representative and as a taxpaying citizen of this Republic.

The first point is about value for money. The Government has spent so much money and unfortunately got such little value for it. It is unrealistic to foist another children's hospital-type project on the country and the Irish people when the cost is unknown and vast. I refer to the Dublin metro. It is good value at €4 billion, but at somewhere in the neighbourhood of €10 billion to €35 billion it is insane. I ask the Taoiseach to get control of capital spending, competitiveness and robustness in public spending. The public spending code is a complex recipe to generally allow the taxpayer to be mugged. We need to simplify it and make the spending code objectives and the delivery thresholds transparent.

I also ask the Taoiseach to look at renewing competitiveness in our economy. The Government has done little to nothing to make banking and insurance more competitive. Individual bank customers have no choice at present. The margins and profits being earned in these sectors are at almost supernormal levels. The reform of insurance and banking has not yet travelled the distance needed. Failure to regulate or allow competition into each of these sectors is a significant issue. We have some of the highest costs and I ask the Taoiseach to take a look at this.

I also ask the Taoiseach to look at the challenge of bureaucracy to the quality of citizens' lives. Individually, every bit of regulation probably has some sense but in aggregate they produce abject misery. Getting an NCT or a driving licence are painful experiences. He should try calling the RTB or comparison shop for health insurance, electricity rates or getting an SEAI grant. Surely these things should not be as difficult as they are. We need to have our wits about us to deal with those services.

The Taoiseach should look at trying to build a house in Ireland at present. We have major issues developing within the planning code and it is going to require a whole-of-government response in addition to a response from the entire Dáil.

I ask the Taoiseach to consider implementing these four changes. I have raised pay policy a number of times and asked that ISME would be allowed to have a representative on the Labour Employer Economic Forum. The recent rounds of pay awards did not fully understand the effects on small business viability. He should introduce VAT 9, even if we have to profile it for some businesses and not give it to others. It needs to be done for the smaller food and service sector. I ask the Taoiseach to consider developing a new Government agency for SMEs similar to Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland and, as I said to him earlier, provide agricultural supports for farmers who are facing an extreme fodder crisis.

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