Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The people have grown tired of the Government's continuing inability to deliver public services. They are equally tired of the Taoiseach's inability to manage their money competently. After nine years of the present Government in office, we are still waiting for a decent health service. Levels of crime are practically out of control, and literacy among children is as bad now as six years ago. The Government has a shameful record of misspending public money. Some €50 million has so far gone on redundant electronic voting machines, and €135 million on a failed computer system in the health service. Millions more have been wasted on such issues as the national stadium and what has been called "the great bowl project".

Yesterday's report on an analysis of tax incentives over which the Government has presided for nine years must bring about a new level of despair among hard-working, tax paying families. In this case, the facts are indisputable. Those schemes have cost €1.6 billion in the past five years, and we have not yet seen the final bill. The cost of the reliefs is double that of the benefits arising. Most schemes have benefited a relatively small number of high-earning individuals, some developers and several landowners. So much for fairness in the tax system.

The Taoiseach presides over the Government and has had the honour of doing so for the past nine years. Does he accept that the failure of his Government properly to evaluate incentives and undertake full cost-benefit analysis before renewing schemes has literally cost the Irish taxpayer millions? As head of the Government, does he accept that the inability in question and the fact that no cost-benefit analysis was carried out have been a fundamental mistake? Will he now issue instructions to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, that any new relief be subject to a full cost-benefit analysis before introduction and a statutory sunset clause to prevent its renewal without such a review in the interests of those who have paid €1.6 billion in taxes in the past five years?

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