Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I would if he were independent enough to come with me because I believe I am the only Independent in this House.

I want to ask a few questions of the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, as I am spokesperson on community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs, and I hope he will answer them. What is the position about decentralisation to Mayo? Will it go ahead? An agreement has been made about a site. Has the site been purchased and will the building be constructed? I will be happy if it goes ahead and if not, I will have things to say.

What cutbacks will there be in that Department because it represents rural Ireland? Deputy Flynn will agree with me. We both met the National Roads Authority and Iarnród Éireann. The NRA will not forget meeting me today because I spelled it out for them. It has let us down with the N5 and the N26.

The west has no developments that compare to those on the east coast. This is the third round of infrastructure funding which the east and south coasts have received but in the west we have not been given the necessary infrastructure since the foundation of the State. I come from Westport and Deputy Flynn is also well acquainted with it and she is very welcome there. I would like her to start shouting a bit more about the N5 which was ready to commence in 1997 but now it has been decided to design a new road. In 20 years the Deputy may still be here but I will not be and that road will not be ready. This is what I told the NRA today. I am asking the NRA and the Government to make this road a priority because it is necessary infrastructure. We need that infrastructure and it must be put in place if Westport, Castlebar and the county towns are to develop.

Gaelscoil na Cruaiche is waiting for the Minister for Education and Science to announce funding but nothing has happened. The school is in temporary accommodation and this is the third move the school has made and it is not fair to children who must wait. Now that there is a downturn they will probably have to wait another few years and the same applies to Bonniconlon national school. The planning has been completed and it is waiting for funding to be approved.

I ask the Government not to make the same mistakes as in the past. I refer to what action Departments should take to make savings. I put down a parliamentary question to all Departments requesting their expenditure on programme managers, consultants and advertising. I ask Deputy Hogan to note that the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has 2,239 mobile phones but when one rings the Department, one cannot get anyone behind any phone. It goes to Mr. and Mrs. Voicemail. The person is not there but they will not hand out the mobile phone number of the person and yet there are 2,239 mobile phones in the Department. A total of €950,000 was spent last year on mobile phones in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food while schemes such as REPS and payments to farmers are being discontinued all over the country because they are over-regulated.

I have dealt with the old, the sick and the weak. It is time to look at the wastage in every Department with expenditure on consultants and reports. Last week I raised with the Tánaiste and the new Minister of State, Deputy Curran, the publication of lovely booklets with photographs dealing with drugs. Someone is making a fortune out of printing them but people put them in the bin when they are delivered to homes and taxpayers are paying for them.

It is time a decision was made about e-voting. The Minister should announce that there will be no e-voting and he should get rid of all the stored machines and save the money being paid for storage of these machines. The machines could be distributed to schools to educate children about politics and to show them how to vote. That would at least give some value to them but they should no longer be in storage.

This Government has probably been the greatest waster since the foundation of the State. We are in crisis and there is no point blaming the Opposition or the people. The Government did not take corrective action on the building industry even though it was warned three years' ago by Deputies Hogan and Bruton, Fine Gael and the Labour Party, that they needed to take action. We all said this economy was built on the building industry and that we would have a problem when it dried up. We need to do something now to revitalise it. The banks give the umbrella on the fine day and they take it back on the wet day.

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