John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Lord giveth. Rather than repeat what Deputy Cleere said, I want to echo his comments, in particular about the ambition of the programme for Government and its emphasis, in stark contrast to what went on in opposition today, on delivery and the aims of objectives of the programme ahead of us.

We come to Government and Dáil at a time of great turbulence internationally. Globalisation, which most of us had never heard of 25 or 30 years ago, has become very much part of our vocabulary and way of life. It has benefited a small, open economy like Ireland significantly. Globalisation has made a village of the world economically and in terms of trade. Ireland has been in a position to be able to capitalise on that over the past 20 years. As I said, it has made a village of much of the world and connected all of us internationally. As we can see, it is now breaking down in a way that we would not have witnessed previously.

Nationalism is emerging again and terms like "protectionism", which we had not heard of for almost a hundred years, are beginning to take hold again in the third decade of this century. Consensus on vital issues of concern to all of us on the planet is beginning to break down. The global consensus on trade, economic and, most significantly, climate is very definitely breaking down. It does not matter how much of the programme for Government we successfully implement - it is the intention that we will implement it - the most important, significant, alarming and urgent challenge that faces all of us remains our climate. This Government and programme for Government remain very committed and strong on the whole issue of climate action.

The global consensus on territorial conflicts is being exacerbated by and replaced with tribal partisanship. Bullying seems to be replacing diplomacy. This bullying seeks to pigeonhole nation states and simplify complex international and intra-national disputes into binary choices. The language of conquest and imperialism is on the increase. Threats and blackmail on a global scale via the noisy foghorn of social media channels has replaced the offer necessarily tedious process of building agreement and consensus. The sands of geopolitics are shifting dramatically and Ireland must not find itself isolated in that environment.

The people made a very wise choice two months ago. They were faced with the option of choosing stability, a responsible Government, maturity and adult voices to lead them forward into the period of turbulence. That is what they voted for. They voted for centrist political options versus the alternative of chaos, incoherence and drama. That is the international stage into which we have been set.

Domestically, I again echo the comments on major bullets of the programme for Government in terms of special education and housing, which is the biggest challenge that faces us. I welcome the commitments on disability. DEIS plus is a particular piece of the programme for Government with which I have great affinity and have championed. We in Fianna Fáil are particularly good at the education piece. I could get down to the granular in terms of constituency, but there will be alternatives for that. Choice in education is a significant thing, not just in terms of patronage but whether people want their children to go to a co-educational or single sex school, something which is a particularly pronounced thing in my constituency.

The programme for Government addresses security, policing, justice and transport, including transport police. I concur with what Deputy Cleere said about the lands and parks piece for development being significant.

The most significant commitment in the programme for Government, and the reason people voted for this Government, is to maintain the prosperity, which can be fragile, that we have built and steered very responsibly over the past five to six years. We have a record for having built up this country economically. Without that economic prosperity, it would simply be impossible to deliver all of the objectives of the programme for Government.

If there is one agency that I want to signal a warning, to it is the National Transport Authority, NTA. It has been politically rudderless for the past four or five years. I hope and believe Government will start to impose some kind of shape on it in terms of communication with the public. In my long experience as a public representative, it is one of the poorest bodies in terms of communication with the public. It is definitely the poorest in terms of public consultation. There could not be a worse organisation for taking on board the suggestions of the public or public representatives. I am saying to it today that that has to change. It simply cannot go on, and it will not go on. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for a little bit of forbearance.

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