Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to respond to as many speakers as possible in the short time available to me, after both today's discussion and the debate on 7 March. Clearly, one can tell who has read the strategy and who has just read the newspaper articles about it. It is very obvious. Some people do not have a clue what is in the strategy, but that did not stop them coming in here or to the other House for the uncontrollable windbaggery that goes on in both Houses. They have not read it. That is obvious because they give the same old regurgitated stuff that comes from their press offices. It is really disappointing. I am sure everybody is busy but this is the most important document to be presented to the Houses of Oireachtas in this Dáil and probably in the next Dáil because it outlines what will be done for the future.

A Senator who is not present now talked about missed opportunities. The missed opportunity was the fact that this country went into free fall and bankruptcy because we ran out of people to whom we could sell houses. Now people talk about missed opportunities instead of putting up their hands, saying "mea culpa" and acknowledging that the reason nothing was done for the last five or ten years is that the State was essentially banjaxed. They might take some responsibility for that, but that does not happen. I am around here long enough to know that the day one sees people take responsibility for their actions in a previous Government is the day one will see red blackbirds, so it will not happen.

Then there are the usual perennial objections for the sake of objecting, whether it is about public private partnerships or whatever. I do not have an ideological issue with public private partnerships but I have an issue with looking back on public private partnerships and not naming the ones in which we should not have participated. Should we not have done Grangegorman, the refurbishment of the courthouses, the Garda stations or the Limerick to Galway road, all of which needed to be done? All of the other things were done at a time when we were very close to not being able to keep the country's doors open, and we were also able to keep industrial peace. Public private partnerships as an entity are not all bad. We have said we are going to review them and that will be done.

I received much criticism on the last occasion, 7 March, from Members who obviously had not read the plan. I was accused of being non-Dublin centred. I specifically used my speech on the last occasion to identify some projects that were carried out in my region to encourage Members to look at what is in it for their regions. However, they fell into the usual trap of criticism for the sake of criticism.One Senator said to me on the previous occasion: "We need to be heard and the Minister of State needs to listen to us". Perhaps the Senator from that party might regret what she said because I listened to a lot of what she said. Much of it is the same as her previous leader said, namely, that the European Union should take its money, hive off and get out of town. Where would we be now if we had taken the advice of some people in this House and in the other House on how the economy was run from 2011 to 2016? As Senator Coffey said, we made mistakes and we are the first to admit that but for the first time since 2006 or 2007, unemployment is now below 6%. The people who are working are contributing to an economy that allows us to borrow, spend and invest money. We are not saying everything is right. I completely agree with Senator Dolan that it is totally disgraceful that a person has to give notice that they want to get on a train. That should not happen in 2018. He is correct that a plan must be put in place to make sure that is addressed but without capital, without a plan and without investment in semi-State companies - and without sound semi-State companies - one cannot do that.

The last night I was in the Chamber I had to laugh at the reference that was made to regurgitated announcements. The speaker then went on to name a road in County Mayo and she said she was delighted to learn it would be done. It is just like the reinvention of the Ballymagash town council.

Reference was made in the debate today and on the previous occasion to the spending code. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform states specifically on page 100 of the plan that there will be adherence to the spending code. I mentioned the cases speakers have highlighted as missed opportunities, yet nobody could pick one item to remove from the plan. Not one person has suggested removing a project because they know it is politically toxic. They know there is €116 billion. They know that exhaustive consultation has been involved. They know the inputs from local authorities, State agencies and Departments. They know the value for money programmes will have to be met. They know the projects will have to be properly procured. Senator Higgins referred to that.

I have no problem coming back into the Seanad. I love coming in and any time I get an invitation, I always come in. Senators need have no fear in that regard. In spite of that Members failed miserably, as they did in the other House, to mention just one thing they would take out. They seem to have decided instead to give out about the cover of the document and the launch date. That is pathetic. When one has to look at the balloons that were used on the day rather than the substance, it proves two things, first, that one did not read the plan and, second, that one does not know what is in it.

The other thing that has surprised me is the obvious lack of knowledge that is still circulating on the difference between the national development plan and the national planning framework. They are two totally different things, which are being packaged together as Ireland 2040 for a reason, namely, to show that we are no longer going to make the mistakes of the past. Some people have missed the fact that the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government produced the national planning framework, notified the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and the line Ministries, who were then able to come up with projects on the basis of where people were going to live and the demands that would exist. It was not done on a nod and wink or a wing and a prayer. It is important that we take such an approach because we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. I do not remember who noted - it might have been Senator Hopkins - that we cannot have a situation in the future where we have glorious white elephants. To respond to Senator Higgins's point, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and I have discussed how we make sure that we put some sort of overarching programme in place to make sure that the delivery of the plan is in line with Government commitments and that there is proper oversight on spending, and that if something runs quickly into the sand that one would take it out and put on the brakes from the start. I was involved in project management in industry and I know that one could not run an industry in the same way as some public projects are run. We have to learn from the past.

It was said that there was nothing relating to Brexit. I contest that point. It is just not true and it proves that the plan has not been read. One must look at the ambition that is in it for ports, airports, roads, broadband and connectivity to Europe by way of energy interconnectors. That proves the Government is looking beyond Britain exiting the European Union. The same is true of what we are doing in terms of cohesion and everything else in the European Union at the moment. From the Government's standpoint in that regard it is obvious that it is Brexit-proofing as we need to go on. The only point I will make on that contribution is that I agree we do not know what is going to happen in regard to Brexit, but it beats Banagher to give out about everything that is in the plan and to talk about everything that has been re-announced, most of which was re-announced 13 or 14 years ago when we were not even in government. When one talks about credibility, that is where credibility falls asunder altogether. I was pleased to see a significant number of jobs announced last week in County Monaghan by the Taoiseach and the local Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in Combilift.