Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

It was rather churlish of Senator Mansergh not to refer to the Deputy in passing.

As Senator John Paul Phelan has said, much of the new national development plan is very positive in its general scheme of projections for what it plans to achieve in the next seven years in the areas of regional development, infrastructure and particularly in the development of public transport, etc. However, most commentators now accept that the Government is trying to sell this plan on the basis that its Ministers are competent managers, whereas, as Senator John Paul Phelan rightly said, its whole record is one of utter incompetence. Some 60% of the previous plan was never implemented and Ministers were responsible for such disasters as the key health project PPARS on which millions of euro were wasted and the e-voting debacle on which €60 million was wasted. No one takes responsibility for these projects.

The majority of the people looked at the great press launch of the plan and shrugged it off as of no great consequence. The people selling themselves as the people to implement the plan have a record of disastrous mismanagement and incompetence in areas such as broadband, delivering interurban routes on budget and the gross under-projection of amounts required for projects in Dublin, for instance the Dublin Port Tunnel, which came in €240 million over budget, and Luas.

The problem for the Government is that it is regarded as utterly incompetent by its own supporters and Deputies.