Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Sinn Féin supports this motion. As my party's spokesperson on finance, I have repeatedly raised in this Chamber and at the Committee on Finance and the Public Service the massive profiteering by developers who exploite publicly-funded projects. On Taoiseach's questions today, we heard again of the astronomical cost to the State of sitting tribunals. The Taoiseach asvised that €200 million to date has been spent, and we note that the metre is still running. The Taoiseach also outlined the details of deals done between the Government and the various tribunals to cut down on the legal costs, a matter repeatedly raised by me and other Members in this House. While the Government eventually took action, how much of that €200 million could have been saved if the Government had heeded the calls of Opposition Members for a considerable time, outlining our concerns and seeking modification of payments made to the legal profession in these tribunals?

Astronomical as the costs of the tribunals are, they pale beside the monumental cost overruns identified in this motion. What has been happening under the so-called Celtic tiger far exceeds the abuses being investigated by the planning and payments to politicians tribunals. The scandal is compounded by the fact that most of these overruns are apparently legal and have been facilitated by the policies and practices of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government.

The Government's responses in its amendment and its contributions to this debate have been disingenuous. It is painting the supporters of the motion in the wrong by claiming we oppose development and new and improved infrastructure. No Member is arguing that our infrastructure, including transport infrastructure, should not be developed. On the contrary, we want it done in a timely, efficient, equitable and properly planned manner. The issue in this debate is the cost and the mismanagement of projects.

The last paragraph of the Minister's amendment refers to his plans to introduce targeted reforms to the procurement of public construction contracts and reform and modernisation of the system for employing construction-related consultants. However, similar to the reform of tribunal lawyers fees, it comes late in the day, after the profiteers have made their money. The most shocking figure in the "Prime Time" programme was the estimation for the average cost overrun for the National Roads Authority project at86%. An international expert in this field stated the global average overrun in comparable developments would be in the order of 20%.

In Ireland, the developers and consultants have been making profits not dreamed of anywhere else in Europe, at the taxpayers' expense, and as has been said by other Members, we are all taxpayers. They have been facilitated by Government neglect and the creation of the State's largest quango, the National Roads Authority. The NRA is funded by monies voted by this Dáil, yet no Minister is accountable to the Dáil for the decisions of that body. It is about to drive a motorway through the historic Tara-Skryne valley, a heartland of our national heritage, and no Minister will come into this House and give account or justification for that decision.

The same Pontius Pilate exercise is being acted out daily regarding our health services. I refer specifically to the Health Service Executive and its use as a smokescreen by the current Minister for Health and Children. Every searching question seeking relevant and important information put to the Minister by Opposition Deputies is being kicked to touch to the Health Service Executive in the respective region or to its central office in Naas, County Kildare. Then we wait. We are supposed to get a four-day turnover with regard to responses on these important matters, but the HSE can now decide that we can wait at their pleasure. We can have no further recourse to questions in regard to the answers it gives.

This is a disgrace. We do not have a Minister for Health and Children: we have the HSE. Either the HSE appointee currently in situ or the future chief executive, to be confirmed, should probably come into the Chamber to answer these important questions.

If there were proper scrutiny and accountability in the Oireachtas, many of the scandals referred to in this motion presented by the Labour Deputies would not have happened. Massive sums of public money would have been saved and could have been spent, not on pet projects like Punchestown, on bungled efforts such as e-voting, or on sweetheart deals concluded with the religious orders, but on areas where there is real need, in the sector for people with disabilities, and special needs education for children. I fully support this motion.

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