Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Being from Tallaght, I know the Acting Chairman is a generous man.

The €300 million State subsidy for public bus transport should be opened up to new alternative, more efficient providers. It is lunacy that CIE should respond to falling demand by cutting services and raising prices while continuing to make pay increases. Dubious capital projects should be subject to published cost-benefit evaluations, which would avoid the PPARS and the e-voting debacle we had some years ago. Contracts with public servants should be changed to provide for much more flexibility to move staff to new priority areas. The Comptroller and Auditor General should be given new powers to improve the governance and financial management of agencies in order to root out the type of waste and excess we have witnessed in FÁS.

We will support Government if it implements Fine Gael policies to help small businesses and the unemployed such as the following. An immediate cut in VAT — at least back to the 21% before the introduction of the budget — should be introduced to ensure that retailers can compete on a level playing field with Northern Ireland and the UK. An employer PRSI exemption should apply for businesses that take on extra staff in 2009. No employment PRSI payments should apply for extra staff for two years. Additional PRSI offsets should apply for employers' investment in research and training. A freeze in commercial rates and other State charges should apply for businesses. A massive investment should be made to drive high speed next generation broadband across the country. In a place on the west coast people are moving around inside a building, as the Minister sitting next to the Taoiseach is aware, to find where they can connect to the Internet. A massive investment should be made in retraining unemployed construction workers in areas such as home insulation, smart electricity appliances and energy certification. Better access for training for the unemployed should be provided, for example, by changing the criteria for the back to education allowance.

We will play our part in ensuring that this country recovers through this recession, but this debate is taking place in the vacuum of our not being told the truth or the reality by Government, and I deplore that kind of activity. This is the House where the Taoiseach should be making his State of the nation address. This is where the decisions should be made. In reference to what we said last week in the Mansion House, the fundamental principle of the First Dáil was accountability and transparency by all Ministers to this House, the elected representatives of the people, and I deplore the way the Taoiseach has gone about this.

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