Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

Irrespective of the Government in power, we would be having this debate about overruns in public contracts. There is very little that can be done about it other than talking. There is a culture that leads people to believe these things are coming off a broad back. We must put a system in place that establishes where such contracted expenditure went wrong and that polices public servants. It would raise a flag if a project went off course and costs went askew.

Abuses occur when companies lob in a quotation in the clear knowledge that it matters little when it overruns. The culture exists that it will get paid anyway and no one will back off when the contract has started. Cost overruns happen in individual projects and it is urgent that they should be monitored and individuals made accountable, be it the Minister or the public servant who awarded the contract.

A further scandal I have raised many times at health board meetings that can be stopped is the waste of public money on rent and leases. This is pouring money down the drain. Legislation should be changed to allow Health Service Executive areas to buy property instead of leasing it. It is the same amount of money. It would mean they would be a good borrower and after 20 years, they would have an asset. The only person winning from this is the landlord. He knows his income comes in every year and we have nothing at the end. If any of my family was spending the same to rent a property as it would cost to buy it, I would tell him or her to stop and think again. We need new legislation to address this. The taxpayer funds this and it creates bad habits and sloppy management. Year after year I have seen €500,000 year long contracts being signed where the first thing that is done is €1 million is spent on the building that is still being rented.

Psychiatric institutions are well placed in town centres. These should not be sold but used as green field sites for the building of new health offices. We should think long and hard before we do anything else with those buildings.

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