Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I second the amendment. It is a fact of life, not a political issue, that government in general has resisted rigid timetables. However, it has very often demanded them from others. I raised this issue during the debate on the regional technical colleges Bill with the then Minister for Education, Deputy Seamus Brennan. The Bill contained a detailed prescription of deadlines by which the colleges had to supply various information to the Department of Education but it did not prescribe, for instance, that the Department should give adequate notice to the colleges of their budgets, which often arrive halfway through the year. There is an enormous reluctance on the part of Government to be judged by the performance standards that most other people expect to be judged by. Yesterday's report referred to the need for agile, efficient Government. The suggestion that five years is a reasonable timescale to implement this legislation is a classic example of government thinking on timescales.

Two light rail lines costing €600 million were built in Dublin in far less than five years. Five years is an extraordinary period. Two general elections on average can be held in five years. However, five years in this context refers to the time from which various sections are brought into force. That is extraordinarily long.