Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Let us have tendering in this instance. It seems to be an obvious example of where one would do it.

The Minister referred to pyrite, but according to Oireachtas briefing notes, householders in Canada with pyrite problems contacted their house insurance providers in the first instance. The insurance providers recovered moneys from the construction industry which, in turn, recovered moneys from the quarrying industry which had supplied the defective materials. My worry is that in Ireland it always seems to be the taxpayer who foots such bills. Perhaps a little Canadianisation in terms of how it dealt with pyrite problems would be good. We must also examine how we regulate accountants and banks because they specialise in landing the Exchequer with financial burdens.

On the amalgamation of quangos, I appreciate the point made by the Minister. The regulation of taxis, for example, was better when it was done separately and has disimproved since it was taken over by the NTA. Mr. Paul K. Gorecki of the ESRI has criticised what has happened and argued that a competitive industry was taken over by an organisation with an uncompetitive ethos. In that context, we may end up with regulation that is worse than heretofore.

I wish to refer to the deployment of teachers. If one divides the number of teachers into the number of pupils, the average is 16, but I do not know anybody who is actually in a class of only 16 pupils. What is happening in the deployment of public servants? Are the additional teachers engaged in administrative tasks rather than the task for which they were trained?

In general, I welcome the emphasis of the Department. The Minister made reference to the change from generalist to specialist; that is the way the world is going. We need specialists in all fields. We recently discussed the issue of safety with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and spoke about the intelligent vehicle and all of the technological advances which aimed to make cars and trucks, which still kill about 290 people every year, safer and reach the safety standards that pertained in the aviation sector. In that context, we require technical personnel to evaluate investments and the generalist culture cannot continue.

The reform agenda is important, particularly since we have left the bailout programme. What the Minister is doing is interesting and worthy of our support.