Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

Exactly. Another point made is that people can see there is a great deal of extra spending but that the money is being wasted or not producing any results. Health is always picked on as an example. I do not know whether Senators listened to what I thought was a very interesting contribution by the vice-president of the IMO the day after the Estimates. I admit that she was highly critical of the Government that the increase had not been even greater than the percentage allowed for in the Book of Estimates. However, she very forcibly made the point that the extra money that had been provided in recent years was not going to waste but being spent on improved procedures and throughput.

I wish the Opposition would stop constantly knocking our health services and suggesting that it is all a waste of money. They should talk to people in the medical profession. Regarding hospitals, the Estimates have allowed for the vacant wards in Clonmel, County Tipperary, to be staffed and used. A complementary phase in Cashel will also get under way.

Many references were made to underpin criticism of Government spending in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. He was around in 1995, 1996 and 1997, and he will still be here in ten years, regardless of what Government is in power. Does anyone seriously believe that, one day, if the right sort of Government comes along, we will close down his office? Of course we will not do so. He is doing his job, which is to scrutinise and criticise Government expenditure over a vast area. The fact is that he found things to criticise last year and the previous one, as he will next year and thereafter. Obviously, people will have to take the lessons on board. However, let us not imagine that, when the Opposition was in Government, the Comptroller and Auditor General did not make highly critical comments on projects evidencing overspending, lax controls and so on.

While there is much political criticism of the Estimates, we are hearing from the Opposition in private that it is a great time to be in Government. Much of the criticism involves spokespersons going through the motions. Bringing forward the introduction of draft Estimates to September would not serve any useful purpose because one would have a less clear idea of the outturn for the current year. I share the traditional attitude of Charles Haughey, expressed when he was in Opposition, to the respective roles of the Opposition and Government, namely, it is the role of the Government to govern and make decisions and the role of the Opposition to scrutinise and criticise rather than act as a co-decision maker. The same applies to Government backbenchers, which, for this purpose, we are also. Our job is to make——