Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

Senator O'Toole initiated an important debate this morning on the question of savings. We have €100 billion in savings and 10% of people's incomes is being saved, but it is important that this money be used in the economy. It is equally important that the moneys in the pensions reserve fund be used productively. We should examine from where we can acquire further money for the State.

We need a stimulus programme and a job creation programme. In my clinic work, there is nothing more heart-rending than meeting young unemployed people and their parents. Something radical needs to be done. My party's NewERA document includes the idea of using money from bonds to invest in the green economy and job creation projects. This should happen.

No group spends more money and puts more money back into the economy than our farmers. It is wrong that 108,000 farmers who were meant to get half their payments are only getting a fraction of those payments because they are waiting on maps to be digitised in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. That should have been done months ago and scheduled over time. Those farmers are without an income they would have invested in the local economy. They have a tremendous record of going into local hardware shops and spending their money. The situation is causing farmers considerable hardship. Will the Leader raise this specific point and try to get a response for the House as to what can be done to get those payments issued to farmers immediately, particularly since they predicated their planning on the basis of receiving them?