Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I see the hand of the Fine Gael Party in it, especially with regard to the reference to overspending on public projects such as the port tunnel. The logic of that is that the Fine Gael Party would oppose the completion of the port tunnel because it costs a lot. The logic of the motion put forward by the Opposition is that it would oppose the widening of the Naas dual carriageway because of the significant cost involved. It is not just because it costs so much that Fine Gael is opposed to it, but because the party has a deep-seated hostility to the construction industry and the hundreds of thousands of decent people who earn their wages from it. They are the people I represent.

It is safe to say that construction is the biggest industry in my constituency. Fine Gael continually knocks all large projects. Its gripe is generally that the original estimate was woefully inadequate, but it ends up attacking the project saying it cost too much. The Fine Gael approach to projects with a significant cost is to abandon such projects and not allow them go ahead. I want to give a message to the hundreds of thousands of people in the construction industry. If they vote the Government out of a job next May or June, they will be voting themselves out of a job shortly thereafter because when Fine Gael and the Labour Party get into government, they will decide the cost of motorways to Cork, Limerick or Galway or the cost of bypasses of Ennis or wherever is too much and they will put a halt to those projects. That will lead to thousands of people losing their jobs in the construction industry.

I would be far happier if Fine Gael discussed the positive contribution being made. Perhaps then it could raise the issue of the need to get more accurate estimates before starting a job. It has gone about the issue the opposite way. It implies the original estimate is set in stone and if the final project costs more, it is a waste of Government money.

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