Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I welcome this Bill and congratulate my colleague, Deputy Varadkar, on introducing it. When the layers are stripped from the issue, it is about competition. There was a time in the past ten or 12 years when the powers that be believed that irrespective of what happened to our economy, it would be fine as long as the building boom lasted. Ministers and the ordinary people were blinded by the revenue coming in like it never had before. They never looked under the canvas to find what was happening in the real economy.

In the mid-1990s up to 2001 or 2002, we were very competitive with our industrial exports. We could see that in Dublin and all over the country, as our industrial complexes were doing well and there was a significant amount of exports through Dublin Port and our airports. With the product we were manufacturing, we had the ability to beat all competitors around the world. This is the basis of competition.

I will not spend too much time talking about the economic boom as it is what we do from now on that will count rather than being retrospective. The problem is that it appears for some strange reason there are elements of Government which have taken their eye off the issue we are discussing tonight. To be blunt, our nation must be able to export pigmeat to Japan, for example. We were there years ago and for one reason or another we got kicked out. Essentially, it will be competition and quality that gets us back there. I remember being on a trip to India with the Minister and it was delightful to see how competitive we were in the area of computers. There are engineering projects in China as well.

We must be able to match the best in the world. There are several factors alluded to by Deputy Varadkar that I do not have time to go through. This is not purely about cost. When the bubble burst in this country, there was only one issue that the Government could see fit to revisit. Regardless of which party was in government after the bubble burst, it was necessary to go back to the people at a certain level but this Government went back in a big way. Two Bills were mentioned which implemented a cut in public sector wages and the so-called pension levy. They have cut deeply into wages and take-home pay, dramatically changing the way people think even more than how they invest and spend.

I have no doubt the Minister knows what people want because he is a busy constituency worker. They want to believe that everything within the remit of the State is being done to push prices down and make us more competitive. It now appears that with all the pain that ordinary working men and women have had to take, we are still not as competitive as we should be. Unless we implement some of the measures in this Bill, we will not achieve that target. What is worse is that if we do not try to act in this way, people will stop working with us from a social perspective. The gulf between the people and the Government will widen, and if this is allowed to continue for years, there could be much social unrest in the country.

We know prices fell by 3.5% last year, which is good news. The problem is that swathes of Irish life not only saw constant prices which were not reduced but also price increases. There is a simple case in point that everybody will understand; how is it that the cost of providing ordinary drinking water around the country is so expensive? The price is increasing dramatically, and everybody involved in the system has told me it will only get more costly. I find it hard to understand why the underlying factors in the production of good clean water mean it will be so expensive. Anybody examining the matter might also consider the bin charges, which will see an increase next year. What is behind this?

The ESB opened a new plant recently in Cork, which is to be welcomed. There has been a reduction in gas and electricity prices but it has come from a significant and unsustainable height compared with anywhere else in Europe. Even with lower charges we are ahead of most of the posse in this respect. When the Minister is replying to the debate, he should give some indication of the Government's actions on this issue.

The competitiveness listing for Europe makes for bad reading for Ireland. Depending on which list is used, we are 23rd, 24th or 31st, which is no place for us. We were going around Europe with our chests out until two years ago on the basis that some saw us as the richest nation in the world, but that did not last long. The idea was based on the false foundation of the building bubble.

Agriculture is the area I may know most about and I know the costs involved in the supply of services to that industry. There are costs in meat factories involving inspections etc. When a farmer sells an animal in this country, there are no fewer than eight subscriptions taken from the price of the animal by the time the transaction is complete. I do not have time to go through every one but none is being reduced.

When such pressure has come on wages, I do not understand how this has not been filtered right through the economy. In the private sector, if dentists, doctors or engineers were charging €50 in the past couple of years, I cannot understand why that would not be €45 now. I am referring to nursing home, health and education charges. For example, the cost of school travel has experienced one of the greatest jumps of all time with an increase of almost 100%.

It is against this background that we in this country have some serious thinking to do. I put it to the Minister, Deputy Pat Carey, and the Minister of State that, if they want to bring the people with them, the Government should at least be seen to be doing what is within its remit. It cannot do many things, as those issues would be outside the Government's control no matter who was sitting across the floor, but there should be a downward pressure on the cost to consumers of those services for which it has a remit. This has not occurred to the degree that it should have.

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