Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have an opportunity to speak in support of this motion which carries within its terms the basic parameters for public procurement. No Minister in any Government should be afraid to allow the Comptroller and Auditor General to examine such proposals before the money is spent. This is particularly so to protect the Minister's integrity and that of his Department, as well as ensuring that there will be no repetition of the electronic voting fiasco. We should recall the sequence of events concerning the latter case. Both the Minister of the day and his successor were warned repeatedly about the consequences of introducing electronic voting. We now have a situation where taxpayers, unwittingly and through no fault of their own, must foot the bill for Government incompetence and lack of ministerial foresight and accountability. That is unlikely to change.

Yesterday in the House, we had the spectacle of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform being indignant that the "Prime Time" programme did not give the slant he felt it should have given. Who is he to judge? I notice he is missing from the Chamber now. Possibly, he is on the way down to Montrose——

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