Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister for coming in. I apologise for missing his introduction. I know we are all trying to split ourselves in two at the moment. I will also miss his response as I am going to a committee but I will watch it back afterwards.

I read the Minister's opening statement and as he said, along with most of the other Senators here, we are obviously facing unprecedented challenges and a lot of global instability. We had more remarks last week from Trump about the imposition and threat of tariffs. We all know the consequences if those tariffs were put in place on our economy and the impact it would have on the high-quality jobs we have here at home. I welcome the Minister's remarks around keeping a level head. U-turns have happened before so I do not think we need to necessarily panic. Having said that, the implications of the tariffs are quite extreme if they were to come in. I recognise the work the EU is doing and the Government is doing in supporting the negotiations over the next few weeks and keeping Irish interests, in particular, at the heart of those negotiations and making sure the Government is leading on that.

I welcome the Government's work on continuing that partnership and really strengthening that aspect of European unity in light of the US threats. Equally, we need to mitigate, prepare and think of the worst case scenario if the tariffs are introduced and what supports we can put in place. I hope the Government is putting plans in place for supports for workers and businesses and these things are being planned as contingencies for the worst case scenario. My colleagues, Deputies Gibney and O'Callaghan, have both called for the EU to repurpose the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which was originally set up to deal with job losses as a consequence of globalisation. Are there different mechanisms that exist in Europe that we can use to think about the uncertainty of tariffs and the impact that might have on employment?

The threat of tariffs also exposes the deeper structural vulnerability we have in our economy, which is our over-reliance on multinational corporations and global trade. Obviously, we live in a global world but if we continue on the path and fail to diversify - Senator Murphy already talked about the need to diversify as well - we risk being caught in more crossfire of trade wars and the general geopolitical upheaval that faces us in the years to come. We need to focus on building a resilient and equitable economic model that supports our amazing indigenous industries and specifically strengthens workers' rights and prioritises, above all else, sustainability. We do have excellent and strong indigenous businesses in Ireland. The Government should be supporting them in identifying new markets for them to grow and prosper in. I want to emphasise the point about preparedness and response mitigation planning by the Government to ensure we have economic resilience to deal with the external shocks. Some might be to do with tariffs or economic shocks but they could also be climate related. We do not know where the road lies ahead relating to climate shocks. Our over-reliance on one key trading partner puts us at great risk, so diversification is key.

My colleagues and I in the Social Democrats want to see an economic model that prioritises Irish interests and indigenous businesses first and foremost and, as such, the challenges we are seeing around CETA and the Mercosur deal are concerning. Many components of the CETA deal are in place but we would challenge the taking-away of the sovereignty of the Irish courts through the dubious investor court system, on which there has been a Supreme Court ruling. With Mercosur, we are effectively reducing the competitiveness of our beef on the international market. That will reduce both food and environmental quality standards, thus putting our farmers on the back foot compared with South American exporters. There has been debate about this and we had a Mercosur briefing last week by Commission staff, but that briefing did not alleviate any of our concerns. I know I am not alone as an Opposition Senator in that. Some Government Senators and TDs shared those concerns. I do not know whether there is even space to do anything, given that I believe the deal will be signed off at Brussels level in a few weeks, but the farming, rural and agricultural community does not feel that its concerns have been listened to or responded to in respect of Mercosur. That is deeply disappointing.

At home, we are grappling with our own crisis, the housing emergency. CSO data shows housing supply has completely failed to meet demand, pushing up property prices while rents are at a record high. Without immediate and sustained action, we risk having another generation completely locked out of home ownership or, indeed, having anywhere to live. That deepens inequality and constrains economic growth. The housing emergency has left us vulnerable and we are relying heavily on institutional investors, which has led to a reduction in the housing supply. We need urgent State intervention to provide housing infrastructure if we are ever to achieve a sustainable economy.

Senator Murphy touched on the point around large-project capital spend. Some projects have been less successful in terms of value for money and we need to crack down on that. We cannot have wasted spending on capital projects that may not have been planned out properly. In that context, I would suggest a reimagining of Ireland’s economic policy. We need to rebalance towards public investment in housing, healthcare and education. In his opening remarks, the Minister spoke about not using windfall on ordinary spending. I agree with that but we need a lot of substantial investment in ordinary, everyday things and we should be exploring reinvesting in those and, of course, in climate resilience, which the Minister mentioned in his opening statement.

I add my support to Senator Clonan’s remarks about the rights of people with disabilities in this country and how they have been excluded, disenfranchised and disempowered. We all know – it is not news – that they have had their rights in this country systematically undermined and violated.