Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

One of the most important characteristics of the previous Government was its complete waste of taxpayers' money over and over again. We heard Deputy Varadkar, when talking about the national children's hospital, say that, save an asteroid hitting the planet, the children's hospital would be built by 2020 with €700 million. The cost is €2.25 billion at the moment and we do not have an opening date. The Government spent €300 million on metro north and no shovel has been put in the ground yet. The Government spent €22 million on ventilators that never worked and is now spending €50,000 per year to store them in a shed. One hundred electric buses were bought and did not move an inch for well over a year because someone forgot to put in a planning application for the chargers for those buses. The Government spent €2.5 billion in 2023 on compensation paid in respect of adverse incidents in hospitals. The HSE has spent more than €100 million so far on the cyberattack and it is now likely the security upgrades that relate to that cyberattack will cost €657 million.

Today, we learned about the next instalment of the shocking Government waste. We learned the Arts Council has spent €6.6 million on an IT system that was never delivered. It is an absolutely shocking situation. The Government is paying millions of euro of taxpayers' money for items that are not even delivered. The Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, was in the Department concerned under the last Government. The initial investigation found that the Arts Council was not prepared for the scale of the IT project development and did not put in the right resources to deliver it. Where was the oversight by the Department? Where was the oversight by the Minister? Where was the oversight by the chair and director of the Arts Council. These people are well paid. Is it not part of their job to make sure taxpayers' money is spent properly? My worry is that Ministers will speak of deep frustration in measured, angry tones, that there will be reviews and perhaps even an investigation, and that the truth is that the incineration of taxpayers' money will continue as normal as soon as media scrutiny subsides and moves on to the next issue. This is an important issue and I do not see the programme for Government tackling it properly.

I will raise immigration and address the following issue with the Minister for Justice. It is an important issue. It was reported in the Irish Daily Star in October 2023 that the subject who was charged with the stabbing of three people in Stoneybatter overstayed an expired visa and was charged with an offence contrary to the Immigration Act that year.

One of the big problems for the Government over the last number of years has been the number of people who have received deportation orders or have overstayed visas and have never left the country. It appears that if this individual was removed from the country when immigration law was broken, he would not have been in Stoneybatter with regard to the alleged incidents as such. That is a very important issue.

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