Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and what is being delivered by our national infrastructure network.

The same point stands in respect of where we are with public services. Of course let us acknowledge the difficulties and needs we have, but let us also acknowledge that a small open economy and society located on the edge of Europe had a standard of living 40 years ago that was considerably below the European average and now has a standard of living - for many, though not all, and we always have to acknowledge what remains to be done and what we have a duty to do - that is now ahead of the European average.

There are many reasons for that achievement, but two that are especially important for the discussion we are having here is that we have a network of enterprise, both domestic and international, that has flourished as the economy has looked abroad. The economy moved away from being inward looking to an economy that was capable of competing with a global economy as it deepened its own integration. The other foundation of that achievement has been the excellence of our public servants, whether this has been what our teachers have delivered in classrooms or in higher education, the ability of our civil servants, the independence of our Judiciary or what our nurses and doctors do in our hospitals and primary care centres, while of course acknowledging the challenges we have which are the subject of negotiations that are under way.

Let us also do it in the spirit of acknowledging that the interrelationship that I described earlier of public and private sectors working together more often than not has achieved results and delivered prospects for our State that, despite our scale and where we are located, are achievements that would have been unimaginable even as recently as 2009, 2010 and 2011. With those points made, I wish to address some of the specific issues that were raised by individual Senators.

Senator Horkan made the point about the need to take advantage of investment that may be available from the European Union and its institutions. I agree with him. This is the reason the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and I visited the European Investment Bank last week. One of the points he made, which is a common rejoinder to the issues that have been raised by Senators in the debate, is that we must integrate those investment choices into a planning framework that we will make work. While we have more resources, we have a resource available in the future that, if we make the right choices, is capable of making a big difference to people's standards of living and to the climate change needs and obligations we have to meet. We have to embed all this in a planning framework that recognises that Ireland has an extraordinary demographic gift, which is the prospect of having a million more people living on our island at a time when many other countries in the European Union will be experiencing unchanged birth rates or unchanged populations. We have to be able to plan for that in a way we have not in the past.

Senator McDowell made the very fair point in respect of recruitment.I am also very much aware of where we are within the State from a recruitment and retention of staff point of view. Again, people will point to the difficulties. Let us look at some of the figures on the numbers of people who applied for roles. In January 2016, as many as 15,901 people applied for posts in An Garda Síochána. In September 2016, as many as 5,102 people applied for roles in An Garda Síochána. Across both of those periods we recruited 350 and 650 gardaí, respectively. We are in a situation where the number of people who apply for posts is considerably ahead of the number of posts we seek to recruit.

One can make the point that we should recruit more people. The same point has been made about many areas of public service. In nearly all areas of recruitment we can bring people in and, in many cases, we are capable of retaining them. Let me give a completely different example of another form of recruitment to illustrate my point. Let us consider the campaigns that we ran in February of this year for senior executive engineers. We appointed 71 individuals to posts and 869 people applied for the posts. From a remuneration point of view, leaving aside my obligations in terms of FEMPI, we do not have a generalised recruitment issue at the moment.

Senator McDowell made a point about cross-Border investment. I made a particular reference to regional needs in the capital plan review. The north west was included because I am particularly sensitive to some of those needs in light of what is happening with Brexit.

Senator Kieran O'Donnell called for an integrated model for private and public pay, which I believe in very strongly as somebody who has worked in both sectors for many years. He asked me whether we have a public service that is fit for purpose and I would say that, by and large, we do. Of course there will always be improvements or changes that can be made. Of course the focus is always going to be on difficulties. Of course I am aware of the challenges in our hospitals. One should consider the care that patients receive, the research and innovation that is under way in our universities and the ability of Irish diplomats and the progress that they have made in terms of Brexit. While acknowledging the many challenges and difficulties, I contend that we have civil and public servants and services that achieve more than is commonly given credit for. If we do not begin with an appreciation of what has been achieved then we will get ourselves into a place where it will be more difficult to sustain the political equilibrium and support that is needed to support this kind of approach in the future.

Senator Kieran O'Donnell made a point about the M20 project. I am very much aware of his long-standing interest in the project. As a former Member of the Dáil and now a Member of the Seanad, he has stressed this matter to me on a number of occasions. As he will know, we aim to consider the project in the context of the capital review. As he has acknowledged, he is well aware of the decision that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, has made to move the project forward from the pre-planning stage.

I agree with very little that Senator Gavan has said. His comments are an example of the empty populism that has damaged our ability to have rational discussions and make choices about issues faced by this country. He contended, without a shred of evidence, that the decisions I will make and that this and the previous Government have made were based on private interest. The only motivation that I have in any decision that I make is the common good. I must make a decision in the context of not having all of the resources that are available to me to make all of the decisions that everybody in this House would want. The reason for such a stance is because I only have the prospect of being able to spend once any euro that is available to me. I am continually aware of one group that has not been mentioned at all this evening - perhaps that is a consequence of the theme of this evening's debate - the taxpayer. I must make sure that the decisions that we make are consistent with the ability of the taxpayer in Ireland to fund them and the ability of our tax system to be competitive, which is a point the Minister for Finance continually makes. Needs are growing and while we will be able to meet many of them, we will always need to make choices about the available resources.

Senator Gavan made a surreal contention that there was no capital plan, let alone a review of a capital plan. There clearly is a capital plan and I shall give an example. My constituency is not short of Sinn Féin councillors turning up to welcome housing projects that have been funded by the capital plan that he denies exists.