Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As mentioned by the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach, the imposition of tariffs poses a significant risk to our country, society, workers, businesses and economy as a whole. All the Deputies here in the House understand the genuine concern, anxiety and distress all this places on families and people across the communities we represent. This will impact on growth and jobs and on broader inflation and cost pressures across the Irish, EU global economy. Prior to and in the days since President Trump's announcement, much of the work of the Government has been to try to mitigate and best protect the progress we have made in recent years. We have been working closely with EU colleagues to try to put plans in place to mitigate and safeguard jobs, our economy and our society. As we saw with Covid, Brexit and other severe shocks we have faced and overcome, we need to work to mitigate the risks and take the appropriate actions to best prepare the Irish economy for the medium to long term. However, we approach this challenge from a position of strength. Thanks to responsible and careful management of the economy and our public finances, we are in full employment, with a highly-skilled workforce and continued investment happening right across our economy. Only in the last week, we saw continued investment and job creation. Inflation has been moderated much better than in many of the other European economies, standing at less than 2%, and we are still seeing strong economic growth and modified domestic demand is predicted to grow strongly this year. This is also reflected in the Exchequer returns from quarter 1. We have recorded and continue to record a budgetary surplus and have invested more than €10 billion in our long-term investment funds. These will amount to more than €16 billion by the end of the year.

Europe equally approaches this challenge from a position of strength. We have a united block of more than 450 million people representing a strong and prosperous single market that has built and improved prosperity and living standards over so many years. There has already been extensive engagement and dialogue at EU level by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste this week in the context of the participation of the EU trade ministers. We believe the best approach is a careful, considered and graduated response, where we demonstrate Europe's strength and seek to develop a negotiated outcome. In Ireland and the EU, we value the opportunities, the prosperity and the economic growth that free trade creates. This is why we want to move this situation from the space of significant tit-for-tat and retaliatory measures to one where the EU, the US and, indeed, the broader global economy can have deep and proper meaningful engagement. Negotiation is key.

Regardless of what may happen in the coming weeks, we know the rules of the game have changed. Indeed, we know from the Department of Finance and others that the trends of deglobalisation have been embedding themselves across the world economy for many years now. We must, therefore, adopt an approach that will best prepare Ireland and our enterprise economic model for long-term change. Enhancing our domestic and international competitiveness must be our priority to support indigenous and foreign direct investment and to remain attractive for anyone who wants to invest from overseas. A key component of this endeavour is investing in our national infrastructure. I received Government approval to undertake a fast-tracked review of the national development plan last week, availing of the additional resources available to the State, including the funds from the European Court of Justice ruling, the share sales proceeds and the infrastructure, climate and nature fund to ensure we can develop more ambitious plans for national infrastructure for the future. This will enable the economic growth that is central. Priority will be given to housing, energy, water, transport and health digitalisation to drive competitiveness and economic growth. A review is to be completed by July this year. Alongside this, a new infrastructure division is being established in my Department, with work ongoing to strengthen the expertise, overcome many of the delays and implement a short, focused programme of reform. This will singularly focus on expediting the delivery of key structure, which is taking too long in many cases. Europe is facing a competitiveness challenge that requires fresh ideas to encourage innovation, boost investment and lift productivity, as the Minister, Deputy Donohoe mentioned. We have got lots of recommendations from the Letta and Draghi reports that have now been discussed at length at European level. We need to see a move to actually embrace those reports and deepen the single market. We must deepen the integration it can represent and try to reduce red tape and balance regulation across the European system to ensure we support enterprise to try to develop and entrench a better capital markets union. These will be the key areas of focus for boosting Europe's global competitiveness.

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It is also important that we examine State investment in a much more critical and strategic way. That is why I am also focused on responding, within the overall envelope of €105 billion being spent by the State this year, to the need to demonstrate a continued focus on value when it comes to State investment. I am reviewing the public financial procedures to ensure we strengthen the value-for-money considerations on all current and capital expenditure. In the coming period, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and I will be publishing a medium-term fiscal plan that will set out what is possible for the long term in line with the work of the Department of Finance, which is updating the various projections we have. That will set out how we can strengthen public services in line with demographics, the wider pressures that we have and the programme for Government priorities. It will set out our approach, which will prioritise protecting jobs, protecting the progress our country has made in recent years and supporting enterprise to drive forward further economic growth in the period ahead. We enter this from a position of strength with strong public finances, strong partners in Europe and a commitment to strengthen our economic model so we can address not only the imposition of tariffs but also the future challenges we know we will face in the years to come.

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