John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

The point I am trying to make still stands, despite the distractions from the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon. We have seen dramatic increases in spending over the past seven or eight years. The Minister of State has acknowledged that, as have I. We are all familiar with those increases but we have not seen corresponding increases in the standards of public services provided. That is the nub of the issue. If the Minister of State wants to make little of that, that is his business, but the ordinary punter on the street is familiar with examples of public money being wasted on a daily basis. Unless the Minister of State and his colleagues are prepared to take this issue seriously and try to do something about it, passing remarks in the House about their new-found commitment to fiscal rectitude will not have much effect on the ground. In the course of the eight years we have seen——