Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

All of us agree on that point. Senator McDowell went into some detail but did not want to discuss specific cases because we all knew what he was talking about. I would be the first to support the public sector. Like all Members, I have always believed in a strong, vibrant public sector. I have never taken the view that everything should be thrown to the private sector, particularly as I come from a rural area where there is a need for public service delivery. However, I suggest to the Minister of State that it is on the question of delivery of public services that the future prosperity of the country will lie. A key question in this regard is how efficiently the Government can deliver public services.

Some ten years ago, when I joined the National Economic and Social Forum, NESF, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald was the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach responsible for it. I asked a question then that others and I have repeated since, namely, given that this is a Europe of prosperity and increased cohesion, with a free market and free movement of goods, services and people, why is it at least one third cheaper to buy a range of products in the United States that are generally available in this country and elsewhere in Europe? Nobody has adequately answered that question. I suggest it goes back to my original point on the lack of consensus on social models and the regulatory nature of the European business sector. Until we get these right, I and many others will continue to ask why it is cheaper to purchase goods across the consumer spectrum — compact disc players, DVD players and fashion items — in a country of 280 million people when the European Union is supposedly an unregulated free market of 400 million. I will leave the question open.