Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

The Bill is simple; it proposes to reduce all Government charges by 5% and calls on Government regulators to reduce their prices and give relief to consumers and business. As Deputy Doyle mentioned, this graph says it all. I know I am not supposed to use props but perhaps the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will allow me to do on this one occasion. This shows the extent to which prices have fallen in the real economy but Government regulated and controlled prices have continued to increase. Essentially, this Bill is about telling the Government it should do exactly what it expects its workers, people on social welfare and those in private business to do, which is to reduce their prices and accept a degree of reduction.

I will respond to some of the arguments made. Some Members, including the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, stated this would cause a cost to the Exchequer. The majority of the cost of this would fall on the utility companies, such as the ESB which made a profit of €200 million last year, Bord Gais Éireann, which made a profit of more than €100 million and Eircom, which made a profit of more than €100 million and increased its prices today. I note the fact that in his contribution the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, made no reference to the fact that a company which makes more than €100 million a year increased its prices today.

Of course the PPP toll contractors would be affected by this and so would the NCT companies, and so they should be. If the Government was able to use financial emergency legislation last year to ride roughshod over the contracts of public servants working for the Government and the contracts of pharmacists and other professionals, why can it not do the same when it comes to toll operators? We know about the sweetheart deal done by the Government and the toll operators which requires that tolls increase with inflation but do not decrease with deflation. It would be entirely legitimate to use financial emergency measures to force that cut. The small number of costs that would fall directly on the Government spending Vote would be approximately €70 million.

The Minister for Finance is familiar with the McCarthy report, which has a menu of €5.3 billion in savings from which to choose. In his Department, it has spare capacity to be reduced by the OPW at €20 million; benchmark rents and occupancy levels with the private sector at €20 million; and IT efficiencies and Revenue Commissioners at €8.6 million. Those three measures alone are enough to reduce Government charges by 5% across the board.

It was argued by the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, that the Bill would undermine the long established and carefully developed system of independent regulation. We do not support the system of regulation as it is organised. There are too many regulators and there should be a single utility regulator. The regulators operate on a cost plus model; how much does it cost and how much can be added for profit. That is not a good way to have a regulatory market. They should be asked to squeeze their costs and that is not happening. Ministers can make policy directions to regulators and have done so before.

The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who has been accurately described as the moral adviser to the Government, sought to give advice to Fine Gael on this occasion. He told us the Government was driving competitiveness to the nth degree. However, the World Economic Forum does not agree with that nor does the World Competitiveness Yearbook. These bodies, which assess international competitiveness every year, state that Irish competitiveness is continuing to decline because all the Government has done is cut wages. It has not addressed any of the other issues that affect competitiveness. That is why, according to these two bodies, overall we continue to decline in competitiveness.

The Minister, Deputy Ryan, also stated that the regulatory system works. I do not think anyone else believes that. He stated the energy regulation system works. I do not think anyone else believes that either. He stated that the regulatory system was reducing energy costs. However, the only reason energy costs increased in the first place was because of the Government's regulatory system, which stated that instead of achieving competition by splitting the ESB or privatising part of it, it would increase costs in order to bring other semi-State players into a fake competitive market. The only reason prices are decreasing is because they were falsely inflated by the Government's regulatory model.

The Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, demonstrated some of the typical bankrupt thinking of the Government by stating that bus and train fares could not be reduced due to the financial situation of Dublin Bus, Iarnród Éireann and Bus Éireann. However, higher fares reduce passenger numbers. There are a number of reasons there are fewer passengers, most particularly the Government's recession, but higher fares reduce the number of people who use bus and train services. There are plenty of efficiencies that can be achieved in CIE and there can be bus competition, for which Deputy O'Dowd on this side of the House has always argued. Deputy Fahey and the Minister, Deputy Lenihan, during his brief contribution - I am sorry he cannot make a greater one - told us about The Wall Street Journal praising the Government. I have no doubt it is praising the Government. This Government is working for The Wall Street Journal . It is the favoured newspaper of the bond holders, the people who are being protected by the Government's banking policies. I am not interested in Wall Street, nor is this party. We are interested in main street and that is what this Bill is about. It is about businesses, consumers and people on main street, Ireland.

In regard to Deputy Collins, who raised a fair point about Fine Gael control of local authorities and asked why we did not cut the rates there. We actually have in some cases - Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council being one example - and in Cork, Limerick and other areas we have frozen rates. That is despite the fact that the budgets given to local authorities by Governments have been reduced. We have set a very good example there. Even though the Government has reduced funding to local authorities we have not increased rates in the local authorities which we control and in one or two examples we have cut them.

This is a good Bill; it is timely, fair, workable and affordable. I hope if the Government does not accept the Bill that it will at least give consideration at budget time to setting aside €20 million, €30 million or €40 million to reduce Government charges by 2%, 3% or 4% and make the point that it understands that Government prices have to come down and that it understands the concept of fairness. Question put.

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