John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher. Although I like him and think he is a good Minister of State, I have to say we have listened to 45 minutes of pure tripe from him. I refer in particular to the last part of what he had to say. I will absolutely confine my remarks to the facts, but I will not be lectured by anybody from Fianna Fáil on what was said in this House or the other House about our reliance on property.

I had the privilege of serving as Fine Gael's spokesperson on finance for five years, during which time the current Taoiseach held the position of Minister for Finance. Every time he came into the House, I raised my concerns about Ireland's over-reliance on property. On one occasion, he almost laughed at me as I expressed my concern about the future of the property bubble. That is a fact. It is on the record of this House.

Every time Deputy Bruton responded to a budget, he said we are too reliant on property. Until recent years, he was laughed out the door by people on the Government benches. It is absolutely wrong to suggest that nobody was criticising the Government, politically or otherwise, in this regard. To claim that nobody made the point that we could not continue indefinitely down the road we were following is not based in fact. I wish the Minister of State had based the part of his contribution that dealt with this issue in fact.

I have no problem with a number of the points made by the Minister of State in his speech. I agree with his comments about the Irish Financial Services Centre, which is an excellent facility that is continuing to expand. The Opposition supported the recent Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009, which sought to harmonise some of our accountancy practices with US practices, because it will allow us to continue to attract foreign direct investment to the IFSC and the rest of the country. We were happy to co-operate in that regard.

I would like to take issue with a number of other points made by the Minister of State, however. He referred on a number of occasions to the IMF's forecast of 4% global economic growth between this year and next year. No one is forecasting that Ireland will enjoy 4% growth this year or next year. It does not matter what the Government might think about the IMF forecast for the rest of the global economy.

The Minister of State also referred to the county and city enterprise boards. Having spoken to representatives of my local enterprise board, I understand the funding given to such boards has been cut in some way. The county and city enterprise boards will have reduced funding to give to small and medium sized enterprises, which avail of such funding under normal circumstances.

The Minister of State spoke at length about the "smart economy", which is an example of a catchphrase that causes people's eyes to glaze over when they hear it. It sounds good but, in practice, the public does not see the Government implementing the smart economy. Although I could not argue with most of what the Minister of State said about it, we are not seeing any proof that it is coming to fruition. That is my bugbear with the Minister of State's comments in this regard.

The Minister of State mentioned the Government's key investments in infrastructure. I cannot say I disagree with the investment in roads infrastructure. While it has improved in recent years, our broadband infrastructure remains pathetic and abysmal. Many businesses across large tracts of the country — I refer to rural Ireland in particular — do not have access to broadband. We also need to consider the whole question of how far down the global league table we are when it comes to next generation broadband.

I would like to mention a number of other facts. Unemployment has increased threefold over the last three years. That is a fact. A further minor increase in unemployment over the 12 months up to the end of February was announced today. It is a personal disaster for the approximately 2,000 additional people who are on the live register. According to today's figures, some 437,000 people are on the live register.

Unemployment is a personal disaster for those who lose their jobs, their families and their communities. It is also a disaster for the economy. We correctly invest money in our education system and in training schemes to ensure that people can get jobs. It is important for people to be able to contribute to society in terms of taxation and to feel good about themselves. The link between unemployment and issues of self-esteem was a significant problem in the 1980s. I do not think any of us wants to revisit that problem, but we are there now whether we like it or not.

Over the eight years I have spent as a Member of this House, I have continually listened to Fianna Fáil Senators talking about how unemployment is so low. I must admit I have not heard them referring to unemployment levels as often during in the last 12 months. It is worth pointing out that there are more people unemployed now than there were when Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats came into government in 1997. The absolute figure at present is 437,000.

I am disappointed the Tánaiste is not here to explain her recent comments on young people who emigrate. What is the Minister of State's own position on this matter? This is the big bugbear I have with the last 12 years of Fianna Fáil-led Government. The Government had an unprecedented opportunity to ensure that our economy did not return to the bad days of the late 1970s and the 1980s, but we now have wholescale emigration again.

Many friends of mine have left the country. Most of them are younger than me. I am 31 years of age. Many people in the group that left school and college just after me have had to leave the country. The Tánaiste said on the BBC a couple of weeks ago that such people are making a lifestyle choice. The Minister of State spoke about what the Government is doing to help younger people who find themselves on the live register. It is shocking that one third of men under the age of 25, but of working age, are unemployed at present. I do not believe the Government is doing enough to try to get this cohort of people into gainful employment.

The Minister of State referred to the fiscal and banking crisis. The reality is that the Government's proposals and plans — its efforts to solve our banking crisis — have been an absolute failure to date. Yesterday, AIB announced its disastrous results and we will have even more disastrous results from Anglo Irish Bank soon which will present the Government with the two options of either further capitalising the banks to the tune of €12 billion or nationalisation. In recent weeks Government spokespersons, including Senator Donie Cassidy, have referred to the desirability of opening a new national recovery bank, which Fine Gael first proposed almost a year ago. I was surprised to hear the Taoiseach yesterday in the Lower House claim NAMA would ensure money would flow through the economy. We have been told by different Government spokespersons, especially the Minister for Finance, that this was not what NAMA was set up to do. The Minister of State was correct to say, in pointing out our banking difficulties, that money is not flowing in the economy. However, what the Government has done heretofore has not worked. I have no confidence, and neither does the public, in what the Government will do from hereon in.

Anglo Irish Bank is an unmitigated disaster. It was mainly concerned with the operations of large developers and, therefore, had no systemic importance. There is now speculation that it will require even more significant re-capitalisation soon. It should have been wound up in an orderly fashion but the Government decided to inject billions of euro of taxpayers' money into a white elephant. It will never operate properly as a bank again. In years to come, we will be looking at investigations into why the Government made its decision to nationalise the bank and capitalise it to the extent it has.

If yesterday's announced tax returns for the first two months of 2010 are replicated for the rest of the year, there will be a €1 billion hole in the Government's fiscal figures, meaning its plans to solve the fiscal crisis look to be in some difficulty already.

Three weeks ago, a Private Members' motion was devoted to youth employment during which I pointed out how we must examine the measures responsible for the large increase in employment, particularly through foreign direct investment, in the mid-1990s. On that motion, Senator Shane Ross said Ireland's low corporation tax rate may need to be lowered further as many other EU jurisdictions have introduced a similar if not lower rate. We should be examining a cost-benefit analysis of the potential gains of increased employment rates versus lower tax revenue. EU membership was also instrumental to our success in the mid-1990s which was recently reinforced by our last vote on the Lisbon treaty.

While I have been critical of social partnership, it did deliver social cohesion, making us attractive to foreign direct investment. We certainly do not have social cohesion now. While I believe social partnership was responsible for many of the difficulties that emerged in the latter part of the Celtic tiger, we really need it now. I urge the Government to do what it can in that regard in the next several months.

Our educated workforce also made us attractive, a feature acknowledged by the Minister of State and whose comments on it I agree with. It is not whether our education system is working adequately but rather how it is perceived overseas in multinational boardrooms. This week serious reservations were expressed by several large employers about third level education standards. While I accept the Minister of State has not dismissed them, they must be addressed. We must strategically set about answering these critiques to ensure the perception of our education system remains strong. We must also ensure it can justify the marks its students receive and is fit for purpose as the economy develops.

I apologise if I started somewhat angry but I disagreed profoundly with the Minister of State's closing comments that no one saw the current economic difficulties emerging. Few saw them as happening quite as quickly as they did but many had serious reservations for some time about the tax incentives introduced by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government to incentivise property development. Much of that property across the State will not be occupied for the foreseeable future. There is no use in retrospectively throwing stones at one another across the floor of the House. We must look to the future and job creation.