Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

Last week we saw in the Estimates that various Ministers and Departments have reduced substantially their dependence on consultants for reports they had commissioned over the years. The Minister of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has engaged engineering consultants MCOS to study on a county by county basis the conditions of the substandard roads and the potholes throughout the country. If at this stage a Minister has to engage consultants it is nothing more than a slap on the wrist for the management of local authorities and their engineering staff that have programmes planned for every county and various initiatives in hand in terms of roads, water and sewerage. Once more we see this Minister taking power to himself, for some reason or other, which he has lost in other areas. He appears to be saying that local authorities and management at local level do not have the capacity to assess programme needs. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to this House to explain this absolute wilful waste of scarce finances.