James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for coming before Seanad Éireann and I am glad that we are finally in a position to debate the contents of this important Bill. I welcome the fact that the Minister has amended the Bill to provide for strategic gas pipelines.

It is only a slight exaggeration to say that Ireland is a First World economy with a Third World infrastructure. There is an undeniable feeling that our cities are close to breaking point. Buses are overcrowded, roads are clogged and trains are non-existent. There is a sense that nothing works and that the Government is not working for its citizens.

My party has exposed the sleaze-driven culture of this sick and jaded Government and the amounts of money it has squandered over the years. In the countryside, we are presented with an infrastructural desert. We have a draughty, slow and incomplete rail network and a road network that is in a catch-up phase. Broadband penetration is very low, which hampers businesses and causes inconvenience for householders.

In its programme for Government issued before the last general election, the Government highlighted the fact that it would be able to roll out broadband to the regions by 2006. The lack of progress in this respect is stifling development in rural areas and there is a widespread discontent with the lack of interest shown by the Government in this regard. This point has been emphasised time and again at local authority meetings, BMW meetings and so on.

The Government likes to take credit — wrongly — for the booming economy it inherited. The groundwork for this was laid by a former leader of my party, Alan Dukes, to whom I pay tribute. For those who think there is no difference between political parties, I urge them to look at how the current Government has handled prosperity and how the Opposition would have done. The Government consistently mismanages public spending and taxpayers' money. It has been responsible for shameful fiascoes such as electronic voting, PPARS and the health care crisis——