Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I thank everybody who contributed to the debate from all sides of the House. It was a very stimulating, high calibre debate, even though I did not agree with anything that was said from the other side of the House. That is a sine qua non. I am extremely disappointed with the contribution of the Minister for Finance. He challenged us to spell out what we meant by re-negotiation and we did so. It involves going back to the negotiating table, sitting down with the unions, working out a productivity deal and publishing it in order that we can measure productivity on an ongoing basis.

The Minister spoke of services getting better but they have worsened. The Luas has to be placed on stilts, the port tunnel cannot take the vehicles it was supposed to take and trains are running late. The Minister mentioned walking away from the deal. We do not expect anybody to do this. We advocate sticking with it but going back to the negotiating table and re-negotiating it. He said it is impossible to do another deal, with which we agree.

Consider the figures pertaining to what the Minister is paying out this year through his Department on benchmarking: Enterprise Trade and Employment, €12.9 million; Department of Defence, €22 million; Department of Agriculture and Food, €10.8 million; Department of Finance, €21.398 million; Department of Education and Science, €300 million; Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, €1.670 million; Department of Health and Children, €188 million. Where is the productivity for this money?

I thank Senator Morrissey for his contribution. I am surprised by the Progressive Democrats. We thought its members were the kind of people that would espouse our proposal. He spoke of three things that were to be delivered, namely, reform, modernisation and productivity. We agree that these should be delivered, but it is not being done.

Senator John Phelan was exceptionally good. Had the benchmarking deal been re-negotiated properly, we would have had 1,200 new gardaí. He spoke of local charges being increased this year because development charges will be imposed. He asked all the right questions.

Senator Mansergh spoke about our being altruistic, a point taken up by Senator White. We are not, we are being pragmatic and we will be thanked for it. We did the same thing in respect of the Tallaght strategy. People said it was daft but in the election which followed, we won nine seats.