Dáil debates

Wednesday, 5 October 2005

Report of Comptroller and Auditor General: Motion (Resumed).

 

7:00 pm

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

There is little point in the Comptroller and Auditor General issuing a report which the Committee of Public Accounts forensically examines each year if we continue to act the same way. Taxpayers' money belongs to taxpayers. In Kildare last March, I met many people who do battle every day with traffic jams to and from work, struggle to find affordable child care places and watch their children being educated in schools with the highest pupil-teacher ratios in the country. They know waste is a cost for them. The people of my area are no different to those of any other constituency. They know that we have a good economy, which they have worked to build. The return they want from that good economy is a good society with solid community support and adequate services.

When Ministers refer to "our" economy, I get the impression they mean "their" economy. There was a lack of outrage with regard to the €52 million hit on e-voting or the 30% increase in West Link tolls. The litany of cost overruns is simply explained — there is no sense of outrage among Ministers.

It was a political decision to substitute private beds for public beds. The Comptroller and Auditor General did us a great service when he highlighted the ways in which the treatment purchase fund can be abused. Are we surprised to learn that substituting privately run facilities for publicly run ones adds to the cost because of profit margins?

It is a political decision to impose a staff embargo, yet this morning the Taoiseach claimed that good value was achieved in his Department by doing the work directly. He tells us that consultants were overused in the payroll scandal. It is a political culture that allows €50 million to be spent for advice on the purchase of the payroll system without seeking guarantees. I would not purchase an electric toaster without a guarantee. The Government needs to sit up and think because it will be confronted by these matters in the next election.

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