Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Our consideration of the national development plan today gives us the opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved and the delivery of the Government's promises. Recently Forfás produced its annual competitiveness report for 2004. Although Ireland is now supposed to be one of the richest countries in the world, this is what it said about our infrastructure. We were 15th out of 16 countries for overall infrastructure, transport infrastructure, port development, communications infrastructure and energy infrastructure. We were 14th for broadband access, and although we are improving, Forfás says there is a deficit of approximately 360,000 connections. The national development programme was published and a great deal promised, but not much has been delivered. We are still living off those promises, in part owing to the incompetence and failure of the Government and its Ministers to manage anything other than the commissioning of consultants' reports. The Government does not seem able to manage projects; it can only spend money on endless, repetitive reports telling it what it ought to think. What started as a €5.6 billion roads plan in the national development plan escalated into a €16 billion roads plan as detailed by the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. In other words, we spent almost four times the money but got less road than was promised in the original plan. If that is not incompetence, I do not know what is.

We had a range of post-election cuts. The former Minister for Finance, Mr. McCreevy, famously inflated Government spending in the run up to the 2002 general election by a figure of almost 18%. There was money available to spend on everything but as soon as the election was safely won, the brakes were re-applied and the most savage cutbacks were imposed. Capital spending has fallen by 18% in real terms over the period since the last general election, on which Davy Stockbrokers reported recently. In 2002 terms, capital expenditure is down by €1 billion over what was actually forecast. Deputies in the House will be familiar with that.

People will be aware that the capital side of the schools budget has been significantly under spent. In his first budget the Minister promised the new device would be the rolling over of capital envelopes to allow money to be spent in later years if it was not spent in earlier years. As a result, the Government is now telling us it is spending more. That is a trick. It has not been able to manage the spending of the money in any coherent way that offers reasonable value for money to the taxpayer in terms of the infrastructure promised.

In terms of the 2004 budget, there was an under-spend of €364 million, €237 million of which the Government has told us will be carried over into 2005. The terminology "multi-annual envelopes" is being used as an excuse for not delivering. It is promising jam tomorrow for the jam that was not delivered yesterday.

There was a current budget surplus last year of €5.6 billion, most of which was used to finance capital spending. The overall budget was in surplus. That means we are funding capital spending entirely from current resources. The many groups and organisations in towns which petition Members of this Dáil for funding on worthwhile projects cannot be told there is no money. There is plenty of money but we have a Government that has grown incompetent and lazy and lacks all will to spend the people's money on the infrastructure that is desperately needed.

Ireland has one of the lowest levels of indebtedness in the European Union. When the National Treasury Management Agency adds in the National Pension Reserve Fund, the actual level is only 22% of GNP. It must be remembered that the National Pension Reserve Fund, which now holds almost €10 billion in its accounts, has still not found a way of investing in a single Irish project. I listened to what the Minister said about the Border, midlands and west region and to what Deputies McGinley and Ring said about the west, Donegal and Mayo in particular, yet we have this money in the National Pension Reserve Fund which is being invested in Hong Kong, in hotels around the world, in Halliburton and in cigarette companies. The only area in which it is not being invested is this country's infrastructure. In terms of competence, I do not know whether this Government is simply arrogant or exhausted or both but it has lost its confidence to manage projects effectively.

Those Members who had the opportunity, as most of us did, of visiting both Kildare and Meath in the course of the recent by-elections, and those in my own constituency of Dublin West, which is one of the fastest growing regions in the country, will be aware that in key infrastructure areas this Government has failed to deliver. We have a dearth of child care facilities. The answer of the former Minister, Mr. McCreevy, to the child care problem was that if we introduce tax breaks the private sector will provide. The private sector has not provided and young families are now faced not just with an extraordinarily high mortgage to buy a house but with costs for child care that are the equivalent of a second mortgage, particularly if they have two or more children.

I spoke previously about the situation regarding primary schools. The annual teachers' conferences will take place next week. Many Members will be aware that primary school children throughout the country, which are our future wealth and resource, are enduring class sizes that are simply not seen in the rest of Europe.

During the by-election, in my constituency, and this must be a new low in ministerial PR, the Minister for Education and Science had the nerve to publish on a list of proposed capital expenditures — good news announcements for constituencies — a proposed national school in my constituency in Castaheaney, but guess what? A second-hand prefab would be given to the school. In the run up to the by-election this was part of a set of good news announcements. I did not know that the second richest country in Europe, or perhaps in the world, can employ PR consultants to publish in the national newspapers the fact that a school will get a second-hand prefab of uncertain age as a way for that school to start its life on a site that still has not been acquired by this Government seven years after 6,000 homes were built in one part of Dublin West. The national development plan is a little like the slogan the Taoiseach adopted in the last general election — not very much done and unfortunately a lot more left to do. This Government has not been able to do it. It should move over and let other people do it.

On the Government's public private partnership programme, the former Minister for Finance, Mr. McCreevy, was fond of lecturing us all as to how this would be the golden solution. Since then time has shown, particularly in respect of Jarvis in the United Kingdom, that the PPP process is an expensive one, very often much more expensive from an Exchequer point of view than the traditional method of direct financing by Government or the design, build and operate method which has been occasionally used.

It is worth asking about the current status of PPPs in terms of this Government's programme. It has delivered remarkably little that could not have been delivered at a cheaper price and with fewer ongoing costs than the traditional method of Government finance. We have had a series of infrastructural decisions that this Government continues to long-finger.

Earlier this year, the Government walked away from its commitments under the Kyoto proposals. Dealing with greenhouse gas emissions was one of the items featured in respect of the Government's general foresight of what would happen to the Irish economy during the period of the national development plan. We have had very little development in respect of that. We have a number of demonstration programmes regarding alternative energy but we are lagging far behind other countries in the European Union in this area. The worry remains that Irish taxpayers will receive a very large bill in years to come because of the Government's failure to deal with this matter in a coherent way. This country has failed to adhere to legally binding economic commitments it entered into, such as the Kyoto Agreement and EU commitments.

I would like to speak about the National Aquatic Centre, which is in my constituency. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, can provide some answers in this regard, unlike his colleague, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, earlier. The Government spent €70 million on the development of the facility, which consists of a fine national water sports centre, a leisure centre and a gym. It is operated by a consortium of designers and builders and a management company, Dublin Waterworld Limited. The roof of the centre was damaged by high winds on 1 January last and the entire facility, which is used by some 60 employees, 6,000 gym users and many water sports organisations, has remained closed ever since. The centre has been successfully used for water sports competitions, such as the Celtic Masters Swim, but such activity is not taking place at present.

The facility was launched on several occasions by the former Minister, Deputy McDaid, the Taoiseach and the current Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, but we have not heard a squeak from any of them since it was closed on 1 January. I appreciate that acts of God, such as high winds, can happen any time. It is astonishing that a complex that was supposed to last for between 50 and 70 years has been lying idle for almost three months, less than two years after its construction was finished in time for the Special Olympics World Summer Games.

I would like to ask the Minister of State about the failure to commence the repair works. We have been told they are starting today, but we have been promised that every three weeks since the centre was closed on 1 January. Have the continuing closure of the centre and the failure to carry out repairs resulted from the Government's decision to establish a consortium structure for this important capital project? The only shareholders in the company established by the Government, Campus Stadium Ireland Development Limited, are the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance. There seems to be total confusion about who is responsible for repairing this important national facility, which remains closed. It is clear that the Government has failed to provide for the coherent, successful and safe management of our infrastructure.

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