Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach said this referred to a half paragraph in the OECD report. Members are perfectly entitled to raise these issues in the House because they are of considerable importance to the livelihoods, careers and the basis on which people join the public service in the first place.

I refer to quangos. The Government is aware of the proliferation of quangos it set up — 200 in ten years. The OECD referred to the proliferation of agencies in Ireland and, specifically, to their tremendous freedom in setting policy objectives, which has led to mission creep, unsustainable in the long run, and large scale duplication of roles. Deputy Varadkar set out a detailed document some months ago on the basis of reduction of costs, creation of efficiency and a reduction in quangos. The Government has quangos for everything. It has quangos to quangos, all set up under the Taoiseach as Minister for Finance and with the full approval of Government. No responsibility is vested in the House anymore. Ministers will hive off responsibility for every issue to somebody else. Has the Government examined this? What are the requirements necessary to set up a new quango? In other words, in what circumstances will they be set up? What is the programme for the reduction in the number of existing quangos, be they in local authorities or subsections of agencies of Departments and so on?

The OECD referred to waste management, for which there is clearly no palpable sense of a plan. There is no regional cohesion regarding landfills and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has proposed to burn all around him to deal with landfill sites, except in his own constituency, where he has a problem. What is the Government plan in respect of waste management, which is criticised by the OECD? The Government has allowed for the curtailment of private sector services which were supported by tens of thousands of people and the provision of what they consider to be an inferior public service. There seems to be a lack of co-ordination in this area, which is costing the taxpayer money. In respect of the criticism by the OECD of waste management, what is the Government's plan and programme? Why is there no cohesion between regional authorities in respect of landfill sites? Where stands the Government's incineration programme?

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