Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for giving us that overall view of the situation as we commence the Estimates process for next year. There is no point talking about specific budgetary lines because we know decisions must be made on policy for next year.

There are two ways to look at the Minister of State's statement. It was given in a nice, flowery manner but there should be a harsh analysis of the figures he read out. I will do nothing except put the figures the Minister of State outlined back to him.

He said that a couple of years ago there were 2,208 staff in the OPW and that it was carrying out work worth €330 million. On average the amount of work in the capital budget per staff member was €166,000. Now the budget for next year will be €100 million and staffing levels will be 1,700 people. That gives an average amount of work on the capital side per staff member of €58,000.

There has been a reduction by two thirds in the amount of money spent on capital projects but the number of staff has been reduced by 20%. Let me repeat the output of work on the capital side has been reduce by probably 70%. The Minister supplied the figures. The figure was €330 million in a previous year and that will be reduced to €100 million in 2015. The amount of work done on the capital side per staff member has been reduced from €166,000 to €58,000 per person. From the way the Minister presents this information, one would almost think it was an achievement.