Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

I am going to give the Minister the answer today to solving a lot of the problems. I am in business all my life, so I treat politics like business - delivery on budget and on time.

We are talking today about homelessness and child poverty. The overspend on the children's hospital is €853 million. I am the Chairperson of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. We will have the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, before us today. All I hear from the committee, which has been looking at the budget for the past 12 months is that there has been an overspend on everything Departments are doing. There is no accountability. The Government wants to raise more taxes and put more people into poverty when it cannot manage the purse. Let us compare public versus private delivery. Public versus private is on budget and on time. I spoke to IBEC and different bodies across the board in recent weeks. We had a massive meeting with business owners in Whites of Askeaton this week. They cannot understand why each Department overspends by millions. This turns into an overspend of billions on the budget. Then they ask how they can raise taxes. The Government must stop the sloppiness of Departments overspending. If the Minister lets me get into the Department I will give him the help. I will show him where the overspends are. I will give him the power to make people accountable. The Government should use models from other countries where infrastructure projects are being delivered on time and on budget. Then it can hold the Departments to account. That is what I am about. I am not here to kick the Minister around the room. I am here to help him, if he will let me help him. I am pointing out faults in Departments, not only the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Minister is being told what is in front of him. Why does he not let people in this House help, who have enough experience to know that if a profit is not being made then they are not in business? In this House, if you lose all the profits, you are still in business and you get promoted. Let us stop the rot. The Minister must let us help him deliver.

I do not mind if he gets the praise for it. I will help him get the praise once he delivers.

See this speech in context