Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

This is a unique time in Irish society; it is a time of plenty, although it may not be very well spread around. While it might be obvious it is worth reminding ourselves that the national coffers are not in the ownership of any Government. The Government is merely their custodian, which is why those funds should not be squandered.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General highlights the area of integrated ticketing among others. The Dublin Transport Initiative commenced its work in the early 1990s. European funds were sought because traffic congestion in Dublin was costing the State a fortune. The DTI recommended bus lanes, Luas lines, increased rail services, etc. It also recommended integrated ticketing. While there may be an excuse for the time taken to provide bus lanes or lay the Luas lines, there is no excuse for the time lag in introducing integrated ticketing. It would have been possible to drain the Shannon in the time it has taken to introduce the system. The first procrastination took place in the late 1990s and a report was prepared for the then Minister for Public Enterprise, now Senator O'Rourke, in 1999. We have had a succession of reports but still no integrated ticketing. In 2006 the simple card that would allow a passenger to move between the various modes of public transport in the same way as in any other capital city is still awaited. There is no justification for a continued delay.

The motion refers to a public buying office. There are examples of such an office in other countries. For example the British local authorities are served by a new procurement system, which saved £3 billion on a £27 billion spend, which shows how such a system can work. In a recent publication by TASC, we were told that the public bodies operating at national, regional and local level are more numerous than ever before, so much so that the title of the publication is Outsourcing Government. It is only when we face a downturn that these will be rationalised and we will discover the waste of taxpayers' money.

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