Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. The Minister's reply was all about policy, guidance and assistance but the people want to know that they as taxpayers are getting value for money and that their money is being well spent. Nothing the Minister said would give anybody any comfort in that area. He referred to a focused policy assessment, policy initiatives and overall responsibility for policy guidelines and assistance. That is all talk; it is Civil Service talk, but the people want to see particular action and they want it to be done transparently.

My question asked what actions have been taken as a result of those reports and what lessons have been learned. An issue was mentioned a few minutes ago, to which I will refer in a slightly different context, that of a value for money report on the postcode system. With respect to housing programmes has anyone done a value for money report on the cost of refurbishing a vacant house compared to the €193,000 to be spent on temporary prefabs for housing? Has anyone done a value for money report on the school transport issue? Has anyone done a variety of value for money reports on the costs of medicines and drugs in Ireland compared to other countries? That is what people want to see, not these guidelines, assistance and policy approaches. They want to see action.

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