Brendan Ryan (Labour)

When I was training to be an engineer many years ago, we were taught that the functions of management were to plan, organise, staff and control. Week after week the Government explains about the breach of yet another commitment regarding pupil-teacher ratios in primary schools. In the richest country in Europe, there are currently 100,000 children being taught in classrooms with in excess of 30 pupils.

The Government seems to be unable to plan for anything. It apparently discovered late that a large number of EU purchasing rules have slowed down the mythological decentralisation. It seems that when it announced the plan it was not aware of the EU purchasing procedure which has to be observed. Will the Government supply the House with some evidence that it knows how to plan, organise and control, because the Comptroller and Auditor General does not think so? In that context, I ask for a debate on schools.

A question has emerged over the weekend about the priorities of the National Roads Authority. It was believed there was a Government decision that the priority in this context was three major inter-urban routes. It appears now that the new Minister, true to his capacity to create chaos wherever he goes, has decided this is not a good idea and wants inter-regional routes to be prioritised. I wish to lay a small bet that the consequence of inter-regional route prioritising is that the motorway to Waterford will now come to the top of the priority list; of that, I have absolutely no doubt. People trying to do business outside Dublin and people trying to commute from Galway, Cork and Limerick, to Dublin, ought to know whether they can plan for a proper national road network or whether we are now about to go back to the drawing board and start all over again.

I ask for a debate on the role of regulators in society. The evidence in Britain is that many of the regulators are now costing more than the Departments which were originally supposed to be the regulators. The evidence also is that they have failed gloriously. A recent report in The Irish Times suggests that our telecommunications service providers are among the worst in the world and that Eircom is the best of them, which is an interesting commentary on the rest. Our regulators grow bigger and yet seem to do little to help consumers. Will the Leader inform the House when the Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill will be taken again?