Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Perhaps the Deputy should go back to Germany in the 1930s.

We have also seen some appalling practices in private companies which have had a much wider impact on their employees. For example, this morning Deputy Burton referred to companies such as Tesco and how they make pricing decisions. Many famous companies such as Ryanair got good starts because they received certain public contracts. It is not as simple as public or private companies. Dáil accountability must be greatly enhanced and reform of the current committee system is a key element. A number of Oireachtas committees undertake critical and essential work, include those on Finance and the Public Service, Transport and the Committee of Public Accounts, of which I am a member.

It does not make sense to have a system of departmental committees unless we give them much stronger powers. Departmental committees should at least have the same kind of powers as those of the Committee of Public Accounts, which is also looking for stronger powers. The first Dáil of which I was a Member in the early 1990s had a committee on State-sponsored bodies which was chaired by the great former Deputy, Liam Kavanagh, and which was a very powerful body. I recall it was the first committee at which we began to find out the wonderful salaries the leading presenters in RTE were paid. It did some very good work. On balance, the establishment of a committee on State-sponsored bodies with strong investigative powers might be a good idea.

My Fine Gael colleagues highlighted the large subsidies CIE has received in the past 12 years. Money allocated from the public purse must always be used in the most efficient way possible and be subject to the highest levels of accountability and transparency. The Deloitte review showed us that Dublin Bus has a PSO of only 12%, which is one of the lowest public subsidies in Europe and is something I never hear my Fine Gael colleagues discussing. Bus Éireann has a 12% subsidy.

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