Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and wish him well in his portfolio. He has a serious challenge ahead, because marketing Ireland is a big task. Ireland is the good food nation, it is the Ireland of the welcomes and it is a great ambassador for its music over the years. It is a remarkable country for its sportspersons, and we saw great achievements last Saturday.

I knew our Minister when he was a Minister of State. I saw him come in here on the evening of a budget that had just been read in the other House for the first time, yet he took questions from all the eminent Senators. At that stage, I said that Deputy Martin Cullen was certainly going to make his mark in the Government. I wish him well in his portfolio. It is an extremely important portfolio because it is responsible for a huge amount of employment in the services sector.

I want to talk about three areas of tourism, namely, wages, local authority costs and energy costs. Energy costs have completely gone out of hand. Prices charged for gas and electricity are unsustainable. Any industry that provides substantial employment — guesthouses, hotels and so on employ 30, 40, 50 and up to 200 people in some cases — should obtain a specific rate from the Government, after which no more can be charged per unit of electricity or gas. There are 800,000 people working in the small and medium sized sector in Ireland. These people work in the local family run businesses and they have been around for 25 to 30 years. They are not fly-by-night businesses. They are the backbone from which the country will come out of the recession. We can be assured that the people running those businesses are making no money today. They are surviving and hoping that in a couple of years they will be able to keep the loyal, dedicated people who helped them build up their business over the years and who are rearing their families all over Ireland.

These are the people and the businesses the Government should be looking after. However, the ESB raised prices by 17.5% in August, while Bord Gais raised prices by 20% in September. The companies made a big deal about reducing prices by 10% next month for domestic users, but what about the people who are creating employment? What about people who are supplying the wages? The Government has a duty in this budget to look after those who are providing employment, because if there are no golden geese, there are no golden eggs. It is as simple as that. It is not acceptable that the price of gas and electricity has increased by 40% in two years. If we look at the prices across the Border, we must lead by example.

The Taoiseach knows the value of a job to us in the midlands. We look forward to having him for the longest time, because he is an exceptional Taoiseach. We all saw only too well on our television screens on St. Patrick's Day the wonderful welcome the man from Offaly received in the US from the new President, with his connections in Moneygall. There are nations in the world that would give their right hand for the welcome and the amount of time that our Taoiseach was given in Washington. Our Cathaoirleach, Senator Moylan, the man from Banagher, accompanied the Taoiseach and showed the strength of the Offaly connection on St. Patrick's Day. The people of Ireland are looking to Brian Cowen and Martin Cullen, the Minister in charge, to deal seriously with energy costs for tourism business.

Experienced officials from the Department are sitting here listening to my contribution, so they should be made aware that the Irish hotel sector has its back to the wall. The people involved are keeping it going because most of us are born to tradition. We are keeping it going because we hope that something will happen that will give us a break.

The second major challenge is to deal with the sewerage charges and water charges levied by local authorities. Not alone are they charging us for water that comes in, but they are now going to charge us for the water that goes out. If there were a commitment to keep people in jobs, and there is, and we are all in it together on both sides of the House, let us give priority to those who are providing employment. When the economy recovers and the opportunities for further employment present, these very employers, that is, the small and medium sized family businesses, will take on staff and train them under FÁS schemes, given the proper incentives. There is no point in starting FÁS schemes in areas without knowing where the jobs are going to be in one, two or three years. However, if incentives could be given to the hotel, guest house and tourism sectors to enable them to train the chefs, waitresses and receptionists of tomorrow, they would gladly hire such people and train them now. If the incentives exist the people are there to respond. They responded when the tourism business was in its infancy in the late 1950s and early 1960s and in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ireland, the good food nation, has come a long way. We hosted the Ryder Cup. An Bord Bia was responsible for a wonderful marketing campaign promoting Ireland as the good food nation. There are marvellous chefs and tremendous cooks here. There is wonderful food, but the problem is the high cost of wages. Who can pay €20 per hour? The Acting Chairman comes from a place to which I go on holiday every year. There is not a year when I do not visit the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney.