Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

Benchmarking should have been renegotiated to ensure real reform of the public sector. Years ago, politicians had an input, or at least people thought they had, into the health sector. Now they have no input. The Government has created a junta whereby Departments, health services and local authorities have their own power, which they can abuse. People in such bodies have given themselves extraordinary pay increases without any benchmarking against service delivery.

Everything is going fine at present, while we have an economy that is robust and is moving forward. However, if that economy suffers a downturn, who will watch the people who are running the Departments? I do not believe anybody can. The Government has let such people get out of control. If anyone approached me for advice on setting up a business, I would tell him or her to forget it and get a job where there is no responsibility, where he or she is answerable to nobody and will get pay increases every year.