John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I agree with Senator Coghlan's comments on stealth charges. This issue was prominent in some of the newspapers this morning. Most people would be very disturbed to see that we had the third highest increase in stealth charges of the OECD countries. The new Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, would do well to investigate this.

Let me raise an issue I raised with the Leader last week. Will she invite the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, to the House to explain the seemingly new Government position on the future of the community employment schemes and other related schemes? We have heard mixed messages in this regard over the past two or three weeks.

Will the Leader invite the Minister for Transport to the House, if at all possible, to discuss the roll-out of the national roads programme, particularly the difficulties that have arisen in different parts of the country, such as the Tara incident and the incident in Waterford that is delaying the bypass of Waterford city? Have we not learned anything in recent years from the major delays caused by choosing routes that directly involve sites of historic or archaeological interest? We should surely be ensuring that future routes will not pass through areas of such significance.