Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

The Minister should listen; I am about to outline some. The time to reform, whether in the public service or even in the way Government itself functions, is in times of plenty when we can afford to do it. The time to invest in long-term programmes that drive Irish competitiveness is when capital is available to the State. The time when political leadership is needed to challenge a culture of waste and promote a new ethos of efficiency is when money is freely available to be abused. Unfortunately, the Government has shown leadership in none of these areas but has contributed to embedding a culture of waste in the provision of public services. The philosophy has always been, "why take hard decisions when we can throw money at the problem?" The money has run out, yet we still face the necessity of bringing about that public sector reform that Fine Gael has proposed for years. We now have to do it against a backdrop of growing unemployment, increasing social discontent and a rapidly shrinking public purse.

Despite this reality, even when the Government is on the rack, it still has the neck to come up with a motion like the one we will be voting on later today, "commending" itself "for the substantial investment made in consolidating and enhancing Ireland's economic competitiveness". Enhancing Irish economic competitiveness — is the Government deluding itself? Since 2001, we have fallen 11 places in the World Economic Forum standings, down to 22nd, and in terms of overall physical infrastructure we now rank 55th. In the Institute for Management Development, IMD competitiveness rankings Ireland has dropped seven places since 2001. Similarly, Ireland's competitiveness ranking in the EU has plummeted from top spot to mediocrity in the middle of the table. Instead of enhancing competitiveness, we have reduced Ireland's attractiveness as a place to come and do business versus competitor destinations. What is so frightening is that even when presented with the facts, independently verified, the Government is still in denial, congratulating itself in this motion on what it has done for Irish competitiveness. It has no credibility on this issue.

Deputy Cowen's tenure as Taoiseach will be judged by how he handles the economic and political challenges that face him, which he created for himself. His response has not been inspiring. The Government's remedy, announced this week, includes little more than vague proposals for cutbacks in payroll expenditure within Departments, an abandonment of the Government's decentralisation fiasco, a rationalisation of quangos, a reduction in the development aid budget, which is a cheap shot if ever I saw one, and a proposal to reduce staff in the health services.

More importantly, despite the vague cutback plans, where is the economic stimulation or revival package that is needed? Where is the signal from the Taoiseach that he understands how to stimulate growth and drive Ireland back up the competitiveness league table again?

The 50,000 people who have lost their jobs in the past year do not want social welfare payments. They want their jobs back, or at least the assurance that they will be able to find employment in the near future.

The Taoiseach said his announcement this week does not represent the Government's full response to the challenges we face, that it was merely an immediate response to Exchequer results. When will we see the Government's plans to get Ireland back on track? The country needs leadership right now from the Government but what we have instead is Ministers limping over the line, looking forward to the summer recess.

There are few areas, in terms of infrastructural development, where the Government's record is worse than in the rollout of high-speed broadband provision. With the exception of investing in metropolitan area networks, the Government has shown no vision or urgency in creating what can be described as a "fibre nation"——

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