Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and wish him continued success in his new appointment. As we look at a much improved economic position for our country, it merits offering our warmest congratulations and acknowledgement to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, for the work he and the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform have done for many years in this sphere. I think those acknowledgements merit recording as we look at a very healthy scenario.

It is really encouraging that the official growth rate for 2015 was 7.8% that we have the deficit down by 2.3%, that we have exited the excessive deficit procedure and that we are now at the stage that our debt to GDP ratio, which was 120% to 100% at the beginning, is now at 88% of GDP in 2016 and we are falling below the euro average. We are in the position of committing €1 billion a year to the rainy day fund, which in itself is a great concept to avoid the mistakes of the past. We are at the point of considering phasing out the universal social charge focusing on the lower and medium income groups. Those are all very tangible and real achievements.

The ultimate objective of economic endeavour is to sort out our unemployment situation. While there are still too many people unemployed, we have reduced unemployment from 15% down to 7.8%. The Department hopes to see 50,000 new jobs created this year. It is a good news story on employment and ultimately we are about creating employment. Work is the way to break the poverty barrier and it gives great dignity to families. It has a whole set of good effects on the individual, the family and the whole community. Providing work for people is the key to everything. All our economic endeavour is predicated on it.

The improvement in our financial situation will create a space for improved services and infrastructure. It is wonderful that through prudent management and taking the country back from the abyss, we are at the point when we can consider spending money on services and infrastructure. If I were to identify an area of infrastructure, and there is nothing revolutionary or radical about what I am going to say but it merits repetition, the one area that we have to invest in is broadband. Broadband has to be given the maximum priority. It is the great infrastructure deficit across tracts of the country and in rural areas. We had a very good debate and productive discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Naughten, last week. That impetus has to be maintained and we need the Minister to ensure that every home in the country has broadband as quickly as possible. It is important that the roll out is quick and that we control the roll out. I understand the rationale for the key involvement of the private sector, but it is important that we control pricing and that we also control the process and ensure it happens efficiently.

I do not think there is a person in any assembly in the country who is not absolutely au fait with all of the reasons that we need broadband.One of the issues the Senator overlooked is that we have so many students around the country now who are commuting to colleges. In many cases it is an economic necessity for them to commute. They require broadband to access information, prepare papers and do other work. Such requirements, apart from employment creation and other reasons, make broadband critical.

In addition to services and employment creation, the new budgetary scenario offers great potential to do much more to keep people out of hospitals. The carer's allowance has great potential that has not yet been realised. The budget should radically increase the carer's allowance and carers' fringe benefits. We should put the caring profession on a very high status, thus giving it more recognition and making it more attractive. In that way, more people would want to work as carers in their own homes, thus reducing the cost of institutional care. I humbly suggest that if it were properly analysed, it could be more than cost-neutral. Apart from the economic issues, there are also social reasons for doing this, including the potential for job creation. If someone leaves a job to become a full-time carer that in turn creates a job. Home helps and home-care packages could be used much more to keep people out of hospitals. Are we nearly there?