Brendan Ryan (Labour)

During the summer and since the Dáil rose, an interesting dialogue has been taking place in the media about poverty and inequality with the soon to be Commissioner for the Internal Market leading the charge to discredit many of those who have campaigned very effectively.

It was interesting to read the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and note that 28 people went to jail last year for welfare fraud amounting to €1 million while, in the same period, €1.5 billion in tax revenue which had been illegally withheld was handed over to the State and nobody went to jail. I call for a debate on the glaring gap in inequality which Combat Poverty mentioned yesterday and which the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General clearly identified, which is that if one is poor and rips off the State in a relatively small way one goes to jail, but if one is rich and does it in style one gets away and in most cases one is not even prosecuted. It is a symptom of the inequality and I ask for a debate on the matter.

The report of the task force on alcohol which was published yesterday makes interesting reading. One of the more powerful provisions introduced by the previous legislation was the capacity to prosecute and have closed licensed premised convicted of serving under age persons. The figures are astonishing. In the whole of the Dublin metropolitan area in the period under study, 63 prosecutions were initiated and there were 14 closures. In the whole of the western area there were 218 prosecutions and 107 closures. I do not believe the people of the west are worse law breakers than those elsewhere.

There is a question about the enforcement of the law in the single biggest area of the State where approximately one third of the population lives and where crime figures show there is a more serious public order problem, proportionately, than elsewhere. Why is there such a discrepancy? We ought to invite the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the House to discuss the matter, having asked the Garda Commissioner why that is the case.

Will the Leader arrange a debate on public private partnerships? Those of us in the social democratic tradition learned 60 years ago not to let ideology get in the way of reality. We now have a situation where the ideological pursuit of public private partnerships is liable to cost the State 20% more than the provision of capital goods by the State. If we are prepared to spend 20% more to go through a ritual of public private partnership, it is a scandalous waste which has nothing to do with reality or efficiency and deserves to be debated because it is ideology, not common sense.