Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome and support the motion tabled by the Labour Party. I listened with great interest to the Minister of State who expressed a view on the public sector some time ago. However, he did not seem to get support from his ministerial colleagues on it. He stated he has not heard a great deal from the Opposition. I do not know what he is listening to if he has not heard what the Opposition has being stating over recent months.

Why are we so expensive? I have not seen any Minister put his or her finger on why everything is so expensive in this country. It is not only with regard to one item. One can visit various countries and each of them will have an item that is extremely cheap, whether it is wine in Spain or Portugal or a tourism product. In this country we do not have a single item that is cheap, not even water and rain pours down on us every day of the week. We have probably the most expensive water in the world. I have not heard any Minister explain why we have such an expensive economy.

I did not hear the Minister of State allude to double time for the service industry in this country. This will close many businesses. We are a tourism country but we have not seen that many tourists here during the past year or two. We should have a major tourism product. Over recent years, Fáilte Ireland has left a lot to be desired with regard to the promotion of this country. As a tourist destination, if we go down the road we are going with regard to the service industry, we will have no services at weekends, especially Sundays.

Whether the Minister of State likes it or not, there is no leadership. In Northern Ireland, irrespective of groceries and clothes, cars and tyres are also cheap. This is why people go there and they will not be stopped. I appreciate that the Minister of State pointed out that €3 billion would be lost if the VAT rate was reduced to 15%. This is a great deal of money, but a great deal of money will also be lost by shoppers going to Northern Ireland. The Minister of State should have proposals on why this economy is so expensive compared with other economies in Europe.