Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I support the motion. There is scarcely a Department or Minister, including the Taoiseach, who does not stand condemned for the gross and unforgivable waste of taxpayers' money over recent years. Taking the hand off the tiller of control of public expenditure is a direct result of the Government becoming arrogant because it has been in power for too long. It is a Government that no longer feels responsible to the public for the use to which it puts its money.

The Minister, Deputy Cowen, spoke about how much money the Government has spent. We did not accuse the Government of not spending money but of wasting money. We agree that a cost overrun is the difference between the tender price and the actual cost of the project. We are not complaining about that, we are complaining about the waste of money that occurs before a tender price is even secured. In many projects the waste of money is largely due to the long lead-in time, which is often due to Government indecision.

Take as an example the saga of the northside Luas. The proposal was debated at great length and was eventually withdrawn on the basis of an offer to the Tánaiste to build a metro for £1 billion. That was seven years ago and there is still no decision on whether a metro will be built, but it will not be built for £1 billion. The prices currently quoted are up to €5 billion and €6 billion. Money is being wasted on such indecision.

The other cause of waste is inflation. The Minister spoke about inflation as if the Government had nothing to do with it and was above such matters. This is despite the fact that the Government created inflation by its ludicrous release of many projects simultaneously, which increased the price of everything. Then there was a stall in which nothing happened before more projects were suddenly released. Of course, this will increase prices. The price of land also increases over time. A big contributor to the increase, however, was an extremely generous deal on compulsory purchase orders which was largely negotiated by the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon. It catapulted him into the Dáil, which led to his appointment as Minister of State.

See this speech in context