Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Perhaps the Minister for Health and Children or the Minister for Finance should clarify to the House elements of the high level group that will oversee the appointment of IT consultants. Is it intended to appoint consultants to vet other consultants or are we now claiming that the expertise to deal with these matters already exists in the public service? If that is the case, why did we employ consultants in the first instance, however badly employed they were? I am concerned that a mess may be compounded by a further mess of centralisation.

The myth the Department of Finance likes to promote is that it has expertise on every matter in order for it to micro-manage the way schools are built in Castletownbere and bridges are built elsewhere. It cannot have this expertise. All the Department will do is introduce another layer of decision-making, which will slow everything down. What Ireland needs, and what we must discuss, is obliging those who are paid well to manage our public services to do so. This means people taking decisions, assuming responsibility and being publicly accountable for those decisions. If we do not do so, the habit of saying that the Minister will decide will lead to disaster.

Will the Leader arrange a debate on Ireland's rating in the World Economic Forum's competitive countries list? If we allow IBEC to decide how to discuss competitiveness, we will be here for a week listening to its woes. We should discuss an international forum's adjudication on the matter because it places eight small European countries ahead of us, which is cause for concern. With a sole exception, none of those eight has lower taxation levels than Ireland and they all have better environmental standards. The usual excuses about regulations or costs are not the issue. Rather, competitiveness is fundamental in this regard and I would welcome a debate.