Many people are now quoting Rahm Emmanuel, who said that a time of crisis provides an opportunity to do great things. This is true, but unfortunately the Taoiseach and his Ministers simply cannot deliver. Their authority is shot through because they went to the country on the pretence that they were competent in managing the economy. They were not competent in managing competitiveness or regulation, and this has destroyed so many jobs and the lives of so many families and people in debt. Failed regulation destroyed our country.
Pouring old rhetoric into new skins will only produce hot air, and that is what we have heard from the Government today. There have been many high flowing words and phrases like innovation, activation, knowledge economy, and young people being the key to our success. However, the reshuffle will not make it happen, which is the tragedy of this Government. I recognise the Taoiseach is bringing in some green hedging to trim around his garden with these extra Ministers of State, but that will not conceal the rotting plantation that is inside.
Young People
Youth Unemployment
The Tánaiste has just said that our young people are the key to the future. In the past two years, 80% of those who have lost their jobs have been under the age of 30. These are the people in whose future we should be investing in. We should be looking to create the infrastructures that give them a future, such as a world class electricity system, a world class broadband system and a genuine knowledge economy. However, during this Government’s tenure, export shares have collapsed because it pumped up the property bubble, and our competitiveness has collapsed by 35%. The National Competitiveness Council has stated that all policy in ICT is in the red zone. 75% of the competitiveness indicators are either amber or red and 80% of the indicators for the knowledge economy are in the red zone. We slump and fail in science and maths, but we have no policies to correct that. The Taoiseach thinks that adding “innovation” or “knowledge” to the name of a Department will change things, but it will not.
The Government has had stewardship of all these activities, but it has allowed them to decay. That is not a comfortable truth, but it is the truth all the same. It went to the electorate in 2007 looking for a mandate to continue the dream. The Taoiseach, then as Minister for Finance, stated that the property bubble was built on sound economic fundamentals. He said that the property bubble could go on and that the Government could build spending commitments on the back of it, which he did. Even after the crisis hit us the Government continued to spend. I remember the Taoiseach saying that the Government was adopting an inspired strategy, because it could expand spending as the recession hit. He increased spending in the following budget at three or four times the prospective growth in the economy that never materialised. He and his Government built up many of the problems that we now confront.
Public Finances
Public finances were mismanaged and the Government ignored warnings. People who issued warnings were told to commit suicide. That is what the Government has bequeathed and its members are prisoners of a failed past. That is why we need a general election. Let us put their belief that they can transform this economy to the test with the people. Let us have a Government, whatever its shade or shape that at least has the authority to confront the problems we face. These problems are deep and are difficult to address, but they will not be addressed by trying to nurse along the failed loans of the past and starving new businesses of credit. That is the Government’s current banking policy. Its public finance policy is about slashing investment. It has taken out €8 billion from its investment programme. How can we build an infrastructure with decent electricity networks and decent broadband systems on the back of slashing investment? It has slammed down the shutters on young people getting into the public service, but it has consistently refused to reform the big political bureaucracy that it has created.
Public Service Reform:
The Government’s public service reform has produced what could well be described as a three humped camel: the Department of Finance, the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment all hope to resolve public service reform. I hope that the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, acting as the mahout for this camel, can deliver some change, but I have little confidence in this because the Taoiseach stated two years ago that public service reform was his priority. We are now half way through this Administration, but public service reform has languished. Not only did the Government destroy it with its past decisions on benchmarking, decentralisation and the creation of a HSE without stripping out the management structures, but it is now destroying it again. The Taoiseach brought people in last Christmas and was going to sign a contract that contained no reform, but only a few changes that were to be delivered. He tried to pretend that this would cut the cost of running the public service on the back of a ten day holiday that would be postponed. He was willing to sign up to this, but it was only his Minister for Finance who pointed out that this would not deliver the savings we need. He has not led us to a public service reform agenda, and the new negotiations are timid attempts at reform.
I welcome 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. working days and other kinds of flexibility, and I welcome a movement of staff, but if we are to reform the public service, we must do much more radical things than that. We must devolve power and make people accountable. We must see people sacked for failing, but we never see these things. The Government has not created that sort of devolved accountability. When things go wrong, nobody is ever called to account.
That is a failure of the Taoiseach’s own leadership to change and drive reform. I would like to see an office of public service reform doing significant things. For example, there is huge potential to cut out routine processes that are scattered across umpteen different Departments and agencies, and consolidate them in shared service centres where one could get genuine economies of scale. I would like to see such an agenda on the table now for discussion at these renewed talks. Let us discuss genuinely how we are going to change the face of the public service, so that good people will not be trapped in a system that fails them because performance is not encouraged, rewarded or prized. More than any before it, this Government has shown that performance is not worth prizing, given the Taoiseach’s attitude to benchmarking and decentralisation. The Taoiseach finds it extremely difficult to provide leadership because of his past, but at least he should be putting such matters on the agenda. We should have a radical reform programme that can deliver the savings he is talking about.
We thought we would see that last year when McCarthy was put to work to produce €5 unfortunately the Taoiseach and his Ministers simply cannot deliver. Their authority is shot through because they went to the country on the pretence that they were competent in managing the economy. They were not competent in managing competitiveness or regulation, and this has destroyed so many jobs and the lives of so many families and people in debt. Failed regulation destroyed our country.
Pouring old rhetoric into new skins will only produce hot air, and that is what we have heard from the Government today. There have been many high flowing words and phrases like innovation, activation, knowledge economy, and young people being the key to our success. However, the reshuffle will not make it happen, which is the tragedy of this Government. I recognise the Taoiseach is bringing in some green hedging to trim around his garden with these extra Ministers of State, but that will not conceal the rotting plantation that is inside.
Young People
Youth Unemployment
The Tánaiste has just said that our young people are the key to the future. In the past two years, 80% of those who have lost their jobs have been under the age of 30. These are the people in whose future we should be investing in. We should be looking to create the infrastructures that give them a future, such as a world class electricity system, a world class broadband system and a genuine knowledge economy. However, during this Government’s tenure, export shares have collapsed because it pumped up the property bubble, and our competitiveness has collapsed by 35%. The National Competitiveness Council has stated that all policy in ICT is in the red zone. 75% of the competitiveness indicators are either amber or red and 80% of the indicators for the knowledge economy are in the red zone. We slump and fail in science and maths, but we have no policies to correct that. The Taoiseach thinks that adding “innovation” or “knowledge” to the name of a Department will change things, but it will not.
The Government has had stewardship of all these activities, but it has allowed them to decay. That is not a comfortable truth, but it is the truth all the same. It went to the electorate in
