Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

Time is tight and we can pursue this later but I get the impression there are two players now. The formal client is the board of management which signs the contract and with whom the relationship with the supplier exists. I suggest the Minister should forget about the consultants. Can we have no more government by consultancy? Can we simply have political decisions saying to boards of management that they are empowered to renegotiate the rental circumstances, because they will vary around the country, and that if they do so, they will get to keep 40% of the saving they negotiate? Incidentally, it is a wonderful capitalist idea which makes sense in these straitened times, otherwise boards of management will not act. In broad figures, the Minister will save 60% of that 15% reduction which could possibly be negotiated. If the Department of Education and Science does it, the Minister will not see a single reduction this year.

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