Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I speak as a new Deputy as well as a businessman. I was disappointed in the contribution of the Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, whom I respect. One would think that Fianna Fáil had just entered Government rather than having been there for 18 of the past 20 years. There have been some positive initiatives, such as the success of the economy, but there are also negative factors. The job of Government backbenchers is to slap Ministers on the back and tell them what great fellows they are, but the job of the Opposition is to point out inadequacies and failings so that the Government will address them. I was interested to hear Deputy White's contribution. The only element missing from her conversion to Fianna Fáil was the de Valera style cailín looking out over the half door and having us all speak in Irish.

One of the major negative factors is broadband availability, in which we are lagging significantly. We are told that we are near the European average but we are only marginally ahead of countries such as Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. These are hardly the examples by which we should style ourselves. It is disturbing how far we lag behind countries such as Japan, with 90 MB, or France, with 44 MB.

I have two companies in County Wexford which have no access to broadband, whether wireless or cable, even though they employ more than 200 people. They find it embarrassing that when they receive telephone calls, they have rush into internet cafés in the town to download broadband data. The Minister of State is, like me, from the south-east region, where three towns with populations approaching 10,000 people, namely Gorey, Enniscorthy and New Ross, have no connection to MANs. That is an absolute disgrace given that towns with populations of fewer than 1,000 are connected to MANs. The Government must take stock of the facts we are setting out.

Deputy English touched on some of the issues in regard to how the Government is influencing inflation. Not alone did the Government change the Planning and Development Act 2000, but it also removed the provision in the legislation for imposing planning and development levies. The Minister of State criticised Fine Gael members for voting in development levies but local authorities were obliged to introduce them. The Government took the Act from the Statute Book and replaced it with a requirement that the local authorities had to impose development levies or lose income.

Foreign direct investment in Turkey for 2004 was €3.5 billion. In 2007, it is expected to be €25 billion. Countries such as Turkey are moving on while Ireland moves backwards.

Lifelong learning has a positive role to play and must be made available at all FETAC levels because it offers people opportunities to advance, irrespective of when they leave education.

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