Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Independent Ireland for bringing forward this very important motion. The staggering list of financial mismanagement across multiple Government Departments and agencies is downright disgraceful. I think the Minister of State will agree with me on this. We can give him all kinds of examples. People are really angry. They know the cases being made public are only the tiniest tip of the iceberg. We all know of the other cases. The cases that have been made public include: the €9 million mobile phone pouch project; the €360,000 bike rack; the OPW wall; relentless overspending on the national children’s hospital; modular homes with a price tag of €442,000; and the scanner from the National Gallery that cost €125,000. They are only a tiny portion of the absolute waste of public money. Is it any wonder that what we hear most from people is that this Government is a shower of wasters? I do not say that in a derogatory way but the waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned money is absolutely disgraceful.

I refer to the lack of transparency and the hiding behind commercial sensitivity. Going back to JobPath, we spent years trying to find out about the original contracts that were given. We were told we would not be allowed to see them because they were commercially sensitive. That is not good enough and it has to stop. Looking at that instance, there was also the displacement of the services that were already there. The local employment services were displaced by JobPath. It makes no sense whatsoever. People are not stupid.

We heard the Department of Social Protection was spending €1.4 million per week on IT consultancy. That is one Department. What is the total cost? What is going on in our Civil Service and our public service and who is in charge? I thought the Department of public expenditure had a grip on this. I was previously Sinn Féin spokesperson on public and expenditure and reform. Deputy Farrell now holds that portfolio. I was absolutely shocked at the lack of oversight, and I remain shocked by it. Deputy Farrell has put forward a number of solutions, as Sinn Féin has done continuously, for how all of this can be tackled.

In the few seconds I have remaining, I want to talk about contracting out and consultancy. This country is being run by consultants. That is how Government policy is made - by consultants. That has to stop. We have to bring that expertise into Government to make it properly accountable.

We can contrast the overspending and waste of money with people being scrutinised to within an inch of their lives and sometimes being scrutinised beyond the grave in trying to get every cent back from them. There is an inherent unfairness within the system and it has to be put right.

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