Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I thank the Minister for his pre-budget outlook. As other Senators have done, the Green Party welcomes the introduction of a pre-budget outlook as part of the overall reform of the budgetary process which the Minister has initiated. This will help in making the budgetary process easier to examine and easier for the public and public representatives to understand how our national finances are run.

In discussing this year's budget, it is important we put the current state of the economy in context. The economy is not in freefall or recession as some might like to suggest. What is happening is that the overall rate of economic growth is slowing down, if anything. The rate of growth of the economy will now experience is more similar that of other EU member states, but there will still be growth. The challenge for those of us in Government is to manage the expectations that now exist after a decade of what has been fairly unusual and quite spectacular economic growth.

Over the past decade the economy has relied, more or less, on the extremely buoyant construction and property sectors. These sectors helped to produce the short-term high rates of growth but a reliance on continued growth of this kind in these sectors is not sustainable in the long run. As far as the Green Party is concerned, the new circumstances in which the economy finds itself provide an opportunity for the restructuring and even reinvention of the economy. In fact, the greening of the economy, which my party would like to see, is not only desirable but essential. Ireland must play its part in meeting the challenge of climate change. If this is done in the right way, it could confer major advantages on our economy rather than presenting obstacles to run away from.

Many of the agreed items in the programme for Government, which the Green Party successfully argued for, are based on the premise that having a different kind of economy can allow us to successfully create wealth while living up to our environmental responsibilities. In order to begin to restructure our economy, we will have to take several important steps which will include, among others, significantly reducing Ireland's reliance on fossil fuels, including oil and gas, putting a price on the cost of carbon, investing massively in public transport infrastructure across the country and strongly stimulating and developing our renewable energy sector. We must also provide economic incentives for businesses, communities and individuals to live more sustainably.

In terms of this country's future economic growth, it is important to define very clearly what we mean by the terms "sustainable" and "sustainable development". Too often they are used to mean that we can continue doing what we are doing without worrying about the environmental costs. Unfortunately, the real meaning of living sustainably is living in a way which has little or no environmental cost. It is very possible for us to prosper economically and, at the same time, live up to our environmental responsibilities. The Scandinavian countries provide a very strong model for how this can be done. The Government will have to show leadership in this regard. The Green Party intends to use its influence in Government in this year's budget and future budgets to ensure the greening of our economy becomes a reality.