Economic security in less secure times

Minister Eamon Ryan's speech in full:

In the 1980s as a younger man, I felt that there was something missing from mainstream Irish politics.

I knew that Government should ensure that our public services are of the highest standard and that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely. But I wanted a Government that was about more than just competence.

I wanted a party that would look firmly to the future, correctly identifying the next challenges for our country and the wider world.

I was not looking for a politics based on fighting an old ‘enemy’, especially, one where the cause of the fight had long diminished. I did not want my politics to be defined by its relationship to the past. I did not want to be tied to older political struggles as framed in our civil war, or by a left-right divide as defined by a previous generation.

It was easy to discern in the practice of such conventional politics the noisy response to issues as they arose but little in the way of planning. I sensed a pandering to, sometimes the lesser parts of our nature and the fostering of a culture of self-interest rather than collective responsibility. I wanted to contribute, but knew little of the practice of politics and saw no party that gave it real purpose.

Until 1988 when I joined the Green Party and met the same colleagues I see here today.

Green vision

We were typically young and inexperienced but we had the audacity to establish and grow this new political home based on our common vision of the future.

I found a party that I was certain knew what was going on, knew where we needed to go and, importantly, knew that sometimes the methods you employ define you as much as the ends you seek.

The Green Party is a socially progressive party that makes policy decisions on the basis of evidence. This evidence base made us the first to appreciate what mankind was doing to the planet, what humans were doing to the atmosphere. We listened to the scientists and saw the spectre of climate change and resource depletion as the defining issues of our time. We understood the scale of the challenge and the level of response required.

In Government

Some twenty years later I entered into Government with those same colleagues. I did so with great weight of responsibility, knowing we had now to turn our vision into reality. While the cheers went up in the Mansion House last June my mind was on the scale of the challenge ahead.

Today, ten months on, it is the right time for us to report back on the work we have been doing and to check with you on our continuing vision for the future.

I was lucky to have spent five years in opposition covering my own Ministry, but that also meant that I knew the complexity of the task. I knew the urgency with which we have to prepare our country for peak oil and climate change. I could see the speed of change in digital technologies and the benefits we could accrue from switching on new broadband services. I sensed the subtlety and balance needed in broadcasting policy, and the moral imperative in protecting our natural resources for future generations.

We took on this challenge with determination, knowing it was time to steer Ireland in a greener direction. We were confident that this vision was the right one for the future of our country and that we could show real leadership in setting the course we need to take.

The challenge was all the more daunting as it was taken when dark economic clouds were clearly approaching. International factors such as increasing energy and food costs, sub-prime mortgage defaults and a resulting credit crisis will all make the business of Government more difficult.

But these threats also sharpen our motivation to serve the Irish people as best we can. That conviction comes with the understanding that going green will be good for our economy as well as for our environment. That we need a new creative spirit of enterprise rather than the acceptance of unemployment or emigration as our default outcomes to any global recession.

My own Ministry has some of the crucial levers of economic policy. Our task is to direct our retreat from the use of fossil fuels and advance our country into a new digital age.

In energy policy that means developing new renewable sources of power and making more efficient use of our energy. Over the last ten months I have been working hard to turn that vision into reality.

Achievements to date

In August, we changed the tax rules, which will see a greater return to the Irish people on any large oil or gas discoveries that are found in Irish waters.

In October, we set out our plans to install a smart meter in every home over the next five years. Next week I intend launching details of our energy insulation support scheme so that the same homes can be made warmer, cheaper to run and cleaner for the environment.

In November, we launched a new all island Single Electricity Market, which has transformed the trading of electricity. In the same month, the rules were changed to allow micro-generators sell their power back to the grid. Today I can confirm that Sustainable Energy Ireland will be introducing a programme of support measures for pioneers in this area, as we set out on the road to a truly distributed rather than centralised energy system.

In January, we completed an award-winning, All Island Grid study showing how we could get over 40% renewables on our electricity system by 2020, allowing us to surpass our Programme for Government renewables targets.

In the same month, we introduced a range of support measures for new ocean energy technologies, including the development of a new grid-connected test site in Belmullet, County Mayo. We also introduced new support prices for off-shore wind farms and doubled the price support for electricity generated from biomass supplies.

In the Finance Bill in February, we were able to introduce new tax breaks supporting the development of energy efficient investments by business.

In March, we held a major energy industry Forum attended by four hundred industry representatives, the Taoiseach and five Government Ministers.

ESB

One of my main aims in office has been to spread our vision for change to other people in politics, business and in civil society. Last July, I was proud to sit down with Padraig McManus of the ESB and begin a nine month intensive and detailed engagement on the future direction of the company.

Having provided power for the Irish people for the last eighty years the ESB has proven itself, at home and abroad, as a company which delivers when it sets itself a goal. I believe a historic change in direction has occurred over the last year, culminating in the recent decision by the board of ESB to approve a new corporate strategy for the company.

Internally, the planned investment of €22 billion to make the ESB a zero carbon emissions company was known as the “blue skies scenario”. Today it is a reality and is being put into action. People will look back on 2008 as the year the ESB went green.

That change is being replicated in the hundreds of other companies we have brought into energy industry meetings and it will be pursued through our National Energy Efficiency Action Plan. We mean to change every Government department, every public institution, every Garda station, every school, and every public building in the country.

Digital future

A similar step change is also needed in our use of new digital technologies. I envisage a future where a distributed electricity generation system powers up new distributed digital technologies delivering both public and private services.

Percy French wrote “There is only one street in Dromcollogher” but with a digital connection there is no reason why that street cannot be an avenue to the rest of the world. I intend driving real change in the provision of new broadband services so that our education system equips every student for this new digital age. We can also use our roadways and other state assets as part of the backhaul network that will allow some people work from home and free up that congested road space.

We are already ahead of other countries in the take up of new mobile technologies and we can build on that success by regulating the microwave spectrum here so that Ireland becomes a pioneering destination for new digital services.

While it has been heralded for some time we are now starting to see the merging of the computing, telecommunications and broadcasting industries.

Public resource, public service

All broadcasting companies, whether they are publicly or privately funded, have access to a valuable public resource in the microwave spectrum which transmits their programming.

This brings with it a public service remit for them to delve into the facts as well as providing the headline of a story. Broadcasters also have a responsibility to follow the codes which protect the wider public interest from individual commercial interests.

In the upcoming Broadcasting Bill I plan to get that balance right in the development of new advertising codes. We need to protect our children from the advertising of food products which are high in sugar, fats or salts. This will help parents in their task of raising our children well.

This is something we signalled as intent in opposition but which we now want to deliver on in Government.

A new economics

The role of politicians is often to provide such a balanced understanding of the complex inter-relationship between economic social and environmental objectives.

Many people have rightly pointed out that the rules of engagement in globalisation have seen it as a cause of much injustice in our world. We need to change those rules. We are going to require such open international markets if we are to deliver the new technologies that are needed to meet both the Millennium Development Goals and our climate change targets. In October this year John Gormley and I will be proud to host one of the UNFCCC working group meetings on the transfer of cleaner technologies to Developing Countries. This is an integral part of the on going Bali process. At the same time we will be working at Council of Ministers meetings progressing the EU Commission Climate Change proposals.

We need a new economics to make sure that business forces work for long term sustainability. We need new accounting systems which put a proper price on natural resources. We need regulators that provide a suitable check but not a rigid block on enterprise. We need Unions which can protect their members’ interests but not be bastions of the status quo.

I believe that the Green Party in Government can get those balances right. I believe our vision for the economy is the one that can best provide jobs and greater economic security as we move into less secure times of climate change and resource depletion.

What better way to facilitate the recovery of our house-building sector than for it to be directed to retrofit energy efficient technologies into existing homes.

What better lesson for the banking sector but to turn to our concept of ‘patient capital investments’ where lending is targeted at longer term but more sustainable projects rather than the speculative short-term gains where profits and security can disappear overnight.

Surely, the thinking of Eric Schumacher in his book “Small is beautiful” is all the more apt today as the creative, flexible environment of the digital economy gives smaller, innovative companies a real advantage.

What better message for us as a country than the simple but succinct idea that we the green island are indeed turning green. In tourism, in food, in financial services, and the new creative digital industries we have everything to gain and nothing to lose from following such a national business plan.

Sharing the vision

Our political vision is one based on ideas, not ideology.

It is a vision to be shared and not hoarded.

Rather than being fearful of other parties taking up our clothes we want them to be wrapped in green cloth so long as doing so is going to see our vision brought quickly into reality.

To anyone in a similar position to me in the 80s, to those who want to contribute to society by acting politically – I would urge you to look to the Green Party. With us you will find a party of performance, of purpose and of good practice. The party of the future.