Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

Fine Gael cannot have it both ways. It wants it one way in this House but when it is in control of local government on the ground in county and city local authorities it does not act.

Mention was made of the privatisation of public services. Perhaps we should look seriously at that. Some parts of the public service should be privatised, for example, the Passport Office which has offices across the street and in Cork. The scenes we saw were scandalous. The Passport Office has acted as a barrier to industry in this country. I have come across, as I am sure other Members of this House have, people who were prohibited from travelling abroad on business because of delays in the Passport Office. That is an example of the public service that should be privatised. I agree that certain parts of it should not be.

We must look also at development levies which are a huge barrier. All local authorities have a development contribution scheme and now act as barriers to development in their counties. I offer an example from my area where a person wanted to build an extension to a nursing home, a service the public needs, but the development contribution was €110,000, more than the cost of building the extension. We need to look seriously at these matters but we cannot have it both ways.

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