Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I have never seen an elaborate programme announced by Government fall so flat on its face so quickly, and in all the time I have been opposite the Taoiseach in different positions, I have never seen him make such a poor defence of such an elaborate plan. I have a copy of a reply to a parliamentary question tabled by my colleague, Deputy Shortall. Dated 3 February 2005, it details the number of buses operating in Dublin in different years. The figures, which can be checked, show that the number of buses in Dublin in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, respectively, was 1,062. One can gather from this the number of new buses the Government has provided. Given that the Minister for Transport deliberately sought to misrepresent the figures on buses, what confidence can we have in him on any of the other aspects of the transport plan?

The Taoiseach seems to resent Deputies asking him to support the claims he made yesterday, which were purely aspirational and for which no supporting documents were provided. In a speech made on 20 October the Minister for Finance stated:

I believe it is appropriate to reduce the project value level to €30 million. This approach will include identification and carefully quantified analysis of all the relevant project costs and benefits, including indirect costs as well as the identification of any risks of cost escalation.

The speech is only a couple of weeks old.

See this speech in context