Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

Today there are some pertinent questions on the minds of people as they heard in recent weeks and at the weekend about the spending of taxpayers' money on excessive and luxury items such as in regard to FÁS. The question that is on people's lips is how many other State agencies are in the same position and what was the Government's role in all of that?

We see those items being referred to the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts, but where was the Government oversight on FÁS with its budget of €1 billion per year, €10 billion in the past ten years? That raises serious questions about the competence of Government to oversee the many agencies under its control. It is disquieting because what we are seeing, essentially, is frontline services being cut back and the scrapping of the cervical cancer vaccine programme. Six women's lives could have been saved with just travel expenses alone that have been spent by FÁS. It is not necessarily about focusing on one man; this is about accountability from State agencies and the role of Government and Ministers in managing those agencies. It seems they have taken their eye off the ball regarding accountability, transparency and the management of these organisations. We are being told the cutbacks are necessary, yet we see this amount of waste. This is why Fine Gael has focused so much on the issue of reform and obtaining value for money. This is as pertinent today as it ever has been given the exposure in recent days of excessive spending. Will the Leader invite the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to the House to debate this topic? I propose an amendment to the Order of Business in order that we can have a real debate in the House on the topic of the day and on the economy.