Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The National Competitiveness Council’s report was very straight on our costs. That was six months ago. Is the National Competitiveness Council as useful as the Fiscal Advisory Council? Is it just an expensive bauble taken out for the visitors and put back in the press when they leave? It made very clear recommendations in very direct language about our cost competitiveness. Has the decrease in oil prices over the summer been passed on in electricity costs to industrial users?

Four years into its term of office and three years since the Legal Services Regulation Bill, which aims to reduce legal costs, came before the House, there is no sense of urgency about it. I remind the Minister of a website which he was very familiar with ten years ago, ripoff.ie. It was one of his party’s websites. The message is still the same and there are areas that the Government can do something about. The National Competitiveness Council has laid out a roadmap but, unfortunately, its advice, like that of the Fiscal Council, seems irrelevant.

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