Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2020
7. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach if he will consider a review of the appraisal processes used in decision making to ensure better balanced regional development and greater transparency across the appraisal and decision-making process. [41617/20]
View answer8. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the economic division of his Department. [41651/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together.
The economic division of my Department assists me and the Government in developing and implementing policies across relevant areas, including the areas of economic growth, job creation, infrastructure, housing, climate action and social dialogue. This work is focused in particular on the delivery of commitments in the programme for Government, for example, the development of a new national economic plan, as well as on co-ordination on issues which cut across multiple Departments.
The economic division supports the work of the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and investment, the Cabinet committee on housing and the Cabinet committee on the environment and climate change. The remit of the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and investment includes oversight of infrastructure development and Project Ireland 2040. This promotes balanced regional development in line with the national planning framework through capital investment across all parts of the country. Following an extensive consultation process, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform updated the capital requirements of the public spending code in 2019 to ensure best practice in project appraisal and decision-making at all stages of the expenditure life cycle of capital projects. The code supports transparency through the publication of business cases and evaluation reports on public investment projects and programmes.
The economic division of my Department also leads Ireland's participation in the annual European semester process, liaises with the Central Statistics Office, prepares the national risk assessment and provides me with briefing and speech material on economic and related policy issues. In addition, the division jointly leads work on preparedness for Brexit, along with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other divisions of my Department.
Covid-19 and Brexit have served to bring to the forefront the need to address the stark regional imbalance and overpopulation of Dublin and our major cities. We must provide the infrastructure necessary to enable people to live and work in rural Ireland. The fact is that the criteria used for cost-benefit analyses on major projects mitigates against investment in regions. I ask the Taoiseach and the Government to change this. Investment decisions must be guided by clear strategic objectives, giving weight to factors that can bring transformational change. We must achieve greater transparency in how decisions are taken. Departments must work effectively and efficiently together in congruence with local communities to achieve faster and better outcomes.
We need to move away from decisions being made by audit companies that do not have skin in the game. Relying wholly on analysis from auditors which use narrow monetary measures, often based on population rather than the requirement for transformational change, impedes potential growth. There are often benefits to projects that require capital investment that can only be monetised with difficulty, if at all. Too often, these projects are dismissed at an early stage in the appraisal process or are delayed for years or even decades. We have a legal requirement to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. There are great opportunities for growth in the green economy along the western seaboard to meet these climate obligations.
We must maximise on the potential of the Atlantic economic corridor with sustainable investment in the western rail corridor, the strategic development zone at Knock airport, roads such as the R312, the A5 and the A26 and other vital infrastructure. Covid has taught us that we cannot continue with business as usual. I ask the Taoiseach to change the criteria for the cost-benefit analysis.
I will continue the earlier discussion. The welfare of workers is an economic question and an economic imperative. I refer to the Taoiseach's response on Debenhams and the possibility of another such situation unfolding with the Arcadia workers who, I believe, will be protesting outside Leinster House early next week. Unless Arcadia is bought out, it is also facing liquidation and the possibility that the two-plus-two contractual agreement the workers had with the Arcadia group will disappear and they will be looking for statutory redundancy from the State.
We would not be in this situation if the Government had realised after what happened with Clerys, Vita Cortex and La Senza that this stuff had to stop and that workers could not be left at the bottom of the queue when it comes to the distribution of assets of companies that go into liquidation. Honouring redundancy arrangements and just entitlement for people who have worked for years is an imperative for Government. The Government has failed to do that - not primarily this Government, as it happens, but the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government. However, Fianna Fáil is now in government and the Taoiseach has a responsibility. He should say that this Government will sort it out because Government should have sorted it out, and then it will address the situation going forward to ensure it does not happen again.
I agree with the points made about the Debenhams workers and the need for workers who are owed redundancy payments to be given the status of preferential creditors in the event of a liquidation. It needs to get done. Kicking this can down the road with a promise of a review of company law, which seems interminable is certainly not the answer for workers who are now facing into Christmas in the most difficult of circumstances.
I was fascinated by the Taoiseach's response about the removal of the motion on CETA from the Dáil schedule. It was removed, one presumes, because of the need for a more thorough and full debate. I assume the State has carried out a full impact assessment of the investment court system and CETA's non-tariff barriers and that due diligence has been done. I asked the Taoiseach if that would be made available to us in advance of a full Dáil debate on the matter and he pointedly failed to answer that question. I ask it again in hope and anticipation of an actual answer this time.
Deputy Conway-Walsh asked the question in the first instance. The cost-benefit analysis is a very involved piece of work and it is not a simple matter to change the criteria overnight to suit particular projects or schemes. We need to apply rigorous criteria to public projects and initiatives to ensure we get value for money. The State cannot keep on allocating resources to particular projects just because people like the projects and think it is a good idea. We need rigorous assessment of projects in that regard.
The Government's climate programme is very ambitious. We have taken steps in the July stimulus and the budget with the national retrofitting programme, for example, which we started through the just transition fund, which is funded from the carbon tax and the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, fund as well. That has been allocated to the midlands and parts of the west to create new job opportunities. The midlands area has taken the brunt of decisions on climate change with the closure of peat plants and so on. We would like to see that retrofitting replicated across the regions, particularly in rural areas.
Regarding climate change, offshore wind energy is another area that offers us opportunities. Various ports in the country could become important centres for assembling offshore wind turbines and their servicing. All of that is important in addressing regional economic imbalance between Dublin and the rest of the country, as the Deputy outlined. Later this week we will be announcing a review of the all-island rail approach also involving the west as a way of creating economic levers in the regions.
We also believe afforestation has a role to play in creating jobs in the regions.
I completely understand that, but I am asking for a review of it, similar to what was done in Britain with the green book.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform continues to review, but there is no plan for a major review of the criteria. However, I will engage with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on the issues the Deputy has raised. She raised all these issues of regional imbalance which I was keen to address along with net zero carbon emissions. She mentioned the western rail corridor. Two assessments of the costs and the value for money have come in on that. They will be published on the website. In the meantime, the Minister will engage in an all-island rail review in collaboration with the Northern authorities to see how we can make best use of the public transport system and rail in particular to help rebalance the economic development of the country.
Deputies mentioned the Debenhams and Arcadia workers. The State, through taxpayers' funds and through the Social Insurance Fund, is the one actor in all of this that has stood the test of time and has never failed to come forward to support workers through statutory redundancy. The State has paid out millions of euro in terms of Debenhams. Whatever system is devised cannot allow rogue employers get it away with it either. The Clerys model would not apply to Debenhams or to Arcadia. There were different issues there.
The employers have responsibility and the State cannot pick up the pieces for all sorts of employers who may or may not do things. Some employers legitimately go into liquidation because of market conditions, and in some cases a liquidation may not be anybody's fault and may be because of changing economic circumstances and what is happening in the market. The retail sector is going through a rough time. The combination of the Covid lockdowns and the growth of online trading is having an impact on in-store trading, which is the challenge facing us on the months and years ahead. I hope the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will have the review of company law completed shortly and certainly in advance of the next Dáil session.
On the full impact assessment of CETA, the removal of non-tariff barriers will have benefits because it creates opportunities for Irish companies to gain easier access to the Canadian market and vice versa. Countries are queuing up to have a trading relationship with the European Union.
No one questions a Japan deal, for example. Australia wants to conclude a deal with the European Union because it sees the benefits of having access to such a large market, with good rigour and high standards and the certainty and stability that the European Union market offers to those partners that wish to trade with it. Likewise, in respect of the debate, we have no issue outlining all those assessments and impacts in the context of such a deal.
I find it interesting, however, that the Deputy's, Sinn Féin's and the far left's position is one of antagonism and antipathy towards trade deals more generally. This is something which has gone on for years. Rarely, and I speak as someone who believes in-----
Unfair environmental trade.
No, I speak as someone who believes in enterprise, trade and in creating jobs. It is the tradition I have come from, as well as that of strong investment in public services, by the way. I was reminded of that when watching the speech made by Seán Lemass in 1965 regarding removing trade barriers. He could see ahead, and that being a precursor to joining the Common Market. He was predicting then that Ireland would do so, some seven or eight years beforehand. That is the kind of vision which is required, and not this consistent undermining of anybody involved in enterprise, which is the order of the day from some Deputies in the House.
