Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join those who have called for a debate on the latest ESRI economic commentary. Next week, obviously, we will be concentrating on the budget. Between then and Christmas, we should have several debates to deal with various reports, starting with the ESRI's. I note that it is predicting higher growth rates next year. I do not believe this is correct, but we will find out in due course. One of our problems is that a coterie of State agencies have been over-optimistic about our growth rates. I remember telling the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, two years ago in the Chamber that in the Government’s tenure growth rates would not average more than 1%. At the time the Government was predicting a growth rate of 2.5% for 2012 and 2.6% for 2013. None of these has come to pass.

I recognise that confidence in the economy is starting to come back, which is an essential first step. However, the most important factor above all others is the unemployment rate. We had a 14.8% unemployment rate at the peak of the recession.

Next year it will probably be approximately 13%. That should caution us all about the extent of the development and growth we need to see in our economy to correct that serious unemployment situation. We had 4.4% unemployment at the peak of the economic boom and we should start to get back to that.

We should look at competitiveness in the economy. Our cost of living is exceptionally high and I am disappointed that the Government has not taken steps to try to bring some structural corrections to our economy. The public service is still way overpaid and our social welfare costs are too high because our cost of living is too high. Something must be done to inject some momentum into that area so that we can get back to having a sustainable, competitive economy here. I would like debate on that area.