Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There are two commitments in the programme for Government which the Government has abandoned or completely failed to deliver on, the first of which, following on from Deputy Joe Higgins' question, is in the area of transparency and accountability. The democratic revolution, with a new openness and transparency, was central to the programme, as well as the Taoiseach’s speech when he was nominated for office. Last week we had the debacle over Irish Water, with the gross, obscene pay-out to private consultants, as well as the high salaries of its executives, and with the obscenity ongoing in the Central Remedial Clinic, with cronies of the former Fianna Fáil Government and the Bertie Ahern Drumcondra Mafia. Can the Taoiseach, with a straight face, forgive the public for thinking the commitment to transparency and accountability has actually turned into a turf war between the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Mafias of cronies fighting over the spoils, while ordinary people are hammered by cuts, unemployment and poverty? They are struggling, while there is a feeding frenzy among the pigs at the trough of public moneys. Much of this has to do with the persistence of quangos and corporate subsidiaries such as Irish Water and other semi-State bodies which are at one remove from government responsibility and accountability. The Taoiseach is doing nothing about this. In fact, he is doing the opposite by continuing to set up these quangos from which we cannot get accurate information on what is going on in their areas.

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