Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 289: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will make a statement on the publication of the National Recovery Plan 2011 – 2014 [45171/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Recovery Plan 2011-2014 was published on 24 November 2010 and provides a blueprint for a return to sustainable growth in the Irish economy. In particular, the Plan sets out the measures that will be taken to restore order to our public finances. Adjustments of nearly €15 billion have already been implemented over the past two and a half years and, as the recent end-2010 Exchequer Returns show, these measures have succeeded in stabilising the budget deficit. An additional €15 billion package of measures is required to bring the deficit back below 3% of GDP by 2014. Budget 2011 represents the first step in the implementation of that programme and, taking account of the €6 billion adjustment package, projects a General Government deficit of 9.4% of GDP by the end of this year. In this regard, it is positive to note that the end of year figures that my Department reported on last week, showed the public finances being marginally better than had been planned for in 2010.

Reducing the budget deficit is necessary, but it will not, by itself, solve our economic difficulties. We must grow our economy by improving our competitiveness and build on our strong export performance. The National Recovery Plan 2011-2014 also identifies the areas of economic activity which will provide growth and employment in the recovery and specifies the reforms the Government will implement to accelerate growth in key sectors of the economy.

A range of specific policy actions will further support the process of recovery. These can be broadly categorised as follows:

· labour market reforms to remove barriers to employment and disincentives to work;

· reforms to improve the non-labour elements of cost competitiveness;

· supportive sectoral policies to assist recovery across the enterprise base.

These policy actions will support the export recovery, which can, in turn, deliver high value employment and act to stimulate the domestically trading sectors of the economy. Given that Ireland is a small open economy, sustainable growth in the long-term must be export-led.