John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I am watching politics for a long time because I was interested when I was very young and I have never seen a bigger con job pulled on the people than the announcement of decentralisation in the last budget. As I said in my opening remarks, there was nothing in last year's budget, but the Minister brought up decentralisation in order to cover the absence of anything else. Now, the big announcement from last year's budget, namely, decentralisation, has been grounded. The ship has been holed beneath the water line, so to speak. Contrary to what Senators Mansergh and Leyden or anyone may say about it, what was promised in this Chamber last year will not be delivered. Those who promised it knew at the time that it could not be delivered. No matter what Senator Leyden says to me or my party about our stance on decentralisation, it has not changed.