Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom fáilte ar ais go dtí an Seanad a chur roimh an Aire Stáit. As the Minister of State said, last year saw an expansion in gross domestic product of some 1.4%. This followed three years of successive decline in GDP and marked a positive first step on the road to recovery. Growth has continued into this year, rising at the modest rate of 0.5% in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2011. It is a start. The recovery is being led by the external sector, with exports of goods and services well in excess of pre-crisis levels. The strong export performance also means our balance of payments with the rest of the world moved into surplus in 2010 for the first time in more than a decade. This is welcome.

As the Minister of State said, in the second quarter of the year, services exports recorded an 8% annual increase. Our aim is to win more foreign direct investment. I note that IDA Ireland has secured 73 foreign direct investments to date this year. That is no mean achievement. IDA Ireland, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, and the Minister of State must be complimented on this significant investment in additional jobs in the country. However, unemployment was estimated at 14.8% in September, which is still far too high. The only reliable way to reduce unemployment is to secure economic growth. That is, and no doubt will remain, the main focus of the Government's economic policies.

It is good to note that aggregate tax receipts so far this year to the end of September are 1.5% ahead of target, with three of the four main sources of revenue performing better than expected. I hope this will be borne in mind at the forthcoming December budget. I note the Government successfully negotiated with the troika that some of the receipts from the sale of State assets will be used for job creation. I ask that strategic infrastructure, be it the ESB, gas pipelines or whatever, would not be for sale and would be held as State assets for future generations.