Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

It is difficult to listen to Ministers speak for ten minutes and say little or nothing when one has a lot to say and one only gets three minutes to say it. I wish to focus on one element, which I hope the Tánaiste will take on board. She heard Deputy Bruton speak earlier about some of the hard decisions we are willing to take to reduce expenditure. I wish her to focus on the opportunities that exist for radical reform. The breadth of the thinking I have heard from Government is purely around revenue raising through taxation, and expenditure cuts through pay cuts and cuts in social welfare. There are numerous things the Government can do to reform the way we do things, to sweat State-owned assets in a far more effective way, and to get more from less.

We have put forward proposals on a radical reform agenda and restructuring process for the semi-State companies we own which are responsible for much of the uncompetitiveness in the Irish economy in terms of energy prices, water prices, broadband provision, infrastructure provision and so on. We can change that by changing the delivery process for those elements that are fundamentally important to getting growth going again in the Irish economy and putting a new platform in place where we can grow a new economy. We are not doing that. The ESB needs reform. Bord Gáis needs reform. It may no longer need to stay in State ownership. The way in which we deliver water to business and to households must change. We spend €1.2 billion every year delivering water and 43% of the water leaks out of our pipes into the ground, yet we are not looking to reform that.

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