Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

-----but my colleague Deputy Ó Snodaigh tells me the same is happening in the Coombe hospital in his constituency. The population is increasing.

The Government has talked a lot about reducing the number of quangos and unelected officials. The Minister knows that it drives elected representatives crazy to see important decisions being made by unelected officials, regardless of whether we come from the right, left or centre of the political spectrum. At all levels, elected representatives would love more control over things. Too often, unelected bodies and unrepresentative groups make important decisions. This is an opportunity to hand more power and responsibility to TDs. We would then be accountable to the electorate for the decisions we make. Everyone in this Chamber should be busy with important decision making and there is no reason it should not happen. We could cut down on administration costs by reducing the massive outsourcing of government that has occurred in the past 15 years. We regularly hear that an issue has been devolved to some body or a commission is now making decisions on it. Why are elected Members not making decisions and taking responsibility for them?

Sinn Féin wants to reduce the cost of government and administration. If we are serious about doing that, the best way to go about it is to reduce the wages of officeholders, starting with TDs. Our salaries should be reduced along with those of Ministers, Ministers of State and senior civil servants. This State makes up three quarters of the island and there are people being paid massive salaries that are far greater than those in other European countries that have huge populations. We should look at the examples of the wages paid to senior officials in Italy, France, Holland and similar countries when they are dealing with much larger populations.

This is an opportunity to do more than window dressing, more than what looks good and gets a soundbite in the Sunday newspapers or poor quality publications. Here is an opportunity to reduce the cost of government by reducing salaries.

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