Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

The straightforward and frank exchange of views in tonight's debate has been very valuable. As public representatives, the feedback we get from people is that they are sick of bickering and populism. The blame game is important because someone must be made accountable. The sooner the ongoing Garda investigation results in people being brought before the courts to answer for the reckless behaviour of our banks, the better. However, there will also be political accountability. Members on this side of the House have accepted responsibility and, as public representatives, we are all accountable at election time. Judgment day comes to all of us, regardless of whether we are in Government or in Opposition.

I was appalled to hear the case outlined by Deputy O'Mahony in respect of the difficulties one of his constituents faced in getting credit. I was also appalled to learn that a mere 20 people made formal applications to the Credit Review Office for a review of credit refusal or reduction. We have a responsibility to make people aware of this independent agency. Last week I received a telephone call from a business person who was coming under heavy pressure from the banks but was not even aware the office existed.

Closing the gap between what we take in and what we spend will require a mixture of taxes and cuts. More importantly, we must encourage growth by stimulating areas of the economy. The National Pensions Reserve Fund can play a vital role in this regard and I would like to see its money being invested in Ireland. Much of the funds is invested in projects based outside the country. We need to invest it internally to have the money in circulation.

We need to see a sustained focus on the sale of some of our State assets. There are many assets that are in State ownership which are huge corporations and we need to expedite the process Mr. Colm McCarthy is examining at present in terms of moving on those assets and offering them to the market. Some of the major international corporations - the world players - will consider taking these off the State's hands for a fair price, which will give the citizen a fair return.

In the meantime, we need to see in the budget a clear focus on the salaries paid to some of the CEOs and senior management within these State organisations. We know of some who are paid a salary three times that of the Taoiseach. Nobody in the civil or public service, or any of the State agencies, should be paid a salary higher than the Taoiseach. Nobody in a Department should be paid a salary which exceeds that of the senior Minister of the Department. We have allowed that situation to pertain. These staff did not come under the pension levy or any of the different reductions in salary that have happened over the years. That sector is getting away scot free and we need a focus on it.

We must have a capital programme and, while it might have to be reduced, I would like more emphasis placed on public private partnerships, a model which has not been utilised enough. We have seen the delivery of some roads, school and hospital projects but we need to roll this out more and break it down into smaller projects and get the model working. The Department of Finance and the National Development Finance Agency are taking years to process these projects. I do not understand why it takes so long to cost a project or a model. We should bring it to delivery and get on with it. We are sitting back and the process is taking years. For example, sewerage schemes are often put into bundles. Six schemes were bundled in my county of Limerick and 15 years later we are still waiting for them to arrive. Why not give them a fast track model, get them out there and get them working?

With regard to the HSE, society wants to see a voluntary early retirement scheme for staff. We know it is a bloated administration. Much good has been done by the HSE, which has improved in many ways. It gets much criticism, which is unfair in that it works better than the old health board structure, but at the same time it is a very big organisation and it needs to be more streamlined. We need to get out that layer of middle management and administration which is not contributing to the overall goal of the HSE.

We need to consider other areas. The tribunals were mentioned on the Order of Business today. Tribunals of inquiry have been operating in this country for more than 15 years. At this stage, whatever they will find is irrelevant or confined to history. They were established by this House and we should have a serious debate about them in this House and work towards shutting them down. It is dead money. What they will tell us, we know already, and they will not inform us further.

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