Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I recently read an interesting argument from a UK commentator which related to the UK Government but which also applies to the Irish Government and my thoughts on this Bill. According to the commentator, people can sometimes understand, accept or cope with a government whose motives, honesty or integrity they suspect but will not tolerate a government whose competence they doubt. Incompetence is the greatest electoral or political sin a government can commit.

This is possibly the reason so much attention has been paid to the PPARS system and electronic voting and the reason the Government is so frustrated by this attention. These are clear examples of incompetence. One of the clearest examples of Government incompetence is the concept of locating the national sports campus in Abbotstown. This incompetence goes right to the top because it was clear from the beginning that it was the Taoiseach who managed and led this project, thereby testing his competence. Whether one examines the issue in terms of the management structure, the building arrangements, the contracting arrangements for the company, the original management system and the management system put in place for the particular swimming pool, it speaks of incompetence.

The greatest example of incompetence in respect of this project, which led me to question the competence of the Taoiseach, was his insistence that we put a stadium on the edge of the city. From my perspective as——

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