It is sloppy, unprofessional management and leadership which has landed us in this mess. The NDP is 62% over budget and two years behind schedule after only three years. The cost of extending medical cards to the over 70s was underestimated by €70 million. The cost of the special savings scheme was underestimated by hundreds of millions of euro. Health service employment grew by 30,000 during that period and only 6,150 of these jobs were in the medical professional area. After the Celtic tiger years fewer people of low means are entitled to medical cards than in 1997. Young children are still being taught in condemned buildings and the schools building programme has effectively been frozen by a cut of 4%. Mullingar hospital, built in 1997, is still a shed and will not now be commissioned until 2007. Despite numerous reviews, only one in five houses is purchased by first-time buyers. Ireland has slipped badly in the competitiveness league.