Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

How can the Minister of State defend any Government or previous government that spent €808,000 on a Dáil printer and wasted the money? It spent €1.43 million on a security hut. It spent €2.5 billion, heading to €3 billion, on a children's hospital. It spent €22 million on a Covid ventilator that was never used. It spent €2.5 billion in medical compensation payouts. The Dáil bike shed cost €336,000. The Government wants to call it by some other name, the Dáil bike shelter. Come on to hell, it cost €336,000 of hard-earned taxpayers' money. These are people who get up in the morning and work their butts off for this country and the Government is robbing from their back pockets. That is not fair. The Minister of State stands there and tries to defend it. Some €825,000 was spent on the refurbishment of Iveagh House. Some €300 million was spent on the metro north link that was never built. Some €490,000 was spent on a wall at the Workplace Relations Commission. Some €7 million was spent by the Arts Council on an IT system. Some €120,000 was spent on a scanner for the National Gallery of Ireland. Electric buses were purchased and had no chargers for a year and a half. We need a Department of efficiency. We do not need to look at anywhere else across the world. We should stand on our own two feet and see the billions, not millions, that have been wasted. We should make ourselves accountable. The public out there are pointing the finger at every politician. Not every politician, civil servant and NGO is wrong, but there is wrong. We need to stand up and be strong in our voice to defend the taxpayers of this country, the ordinary, hardworking people, the people who worked hard and have now retired but are suffering in the cold because they cannot pay their oil or electricity bills.

It a shame for this Government. I am ashamed for it. Another expenditure was €54.6 million on e-voting a number of years ago. Nobody's head rolls. It is pat-on-the-back time in this country. It is a Government investigating itself. I ask the Government to change its mind and accept that a Department of efficiency and reform is needed.

It should be run by independent people-----

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