Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The Government engages in too much easy thinking and takes too many soft options regarding the way it approaches its responsibilities.

We cannot afford the cosy practice the Minister, Deputy Cowen, has again adopted this year of allocating money and leaving all existing services intact. That was the purpose of the big book with which we were presented in October. Everything that is already in place will remain intact. The Government is only focused on how to spend the money that is left over. If we want radical change and reform, we must engage in a root and branch examination of what is happening in those programmes. We should not state that existing services will remain in place and that we will tack on a little more funding. It is the latter which has brought us to the point at which we find ourselves, namely, facing into a huge deficit on the back of only a modest change in the way the economy is performing.

People might ask if the Minister is an iron chancellor. In my opinion, he is more like the tin man. When one seeks real achievements or real change, one realises that the Minister, Deputy Cowen, is hollow. He has no heart for real reform in respect of the way we deliver public services. He lives in a fantasy land of soundbites and he has substituted those soundbites for actual change that would make a difference. The time for the pampered indulgence of incompetent Ministers is over——

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