Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I agree with Senators Mullen, Boyle and Leyden and in part with Senator Ross about Irish Life & Permanent which has engaged in high treason of an economic nature in recent years. I must declare an interest because my firm operated as an agency for Irish Life & Permanent which closed 50 such agencies in recent weeks. It did so because it was much cheaper to obtain money through interbank loans than it was to go out and work for it and give value for money to people who invested perhaps a few hundred or a few thousand euro in those agencies. Many jobs were lost as a result of this development. However, those who committed high economic treason are being rewarded. I hope, as does Senator Mullen, that these people will get their just rewards.

Last week the Taoiseach announced a reduction in professional fees that will yield a saving of €80 million over the course of one year. We pay more than €1 billion in such fees and I have often wondered if we obtain value for money in return. In a curious case of which I am aware, a local authority in County Kerry decided to engage the same professionals who got the figures wrong on the first occasion and asked them to correct their error. I refer to a firm that was asked to source water for a new supply to be provided to the town of Kenmare in which I live. A local community organisation managed to get the figures right and stated that the original figures were cockeyed. The council then decided that the firm of professionals should re-examine its figures. I suspect that the next batch of figures it provides will still be wrong. If we are doing so badly by engaging poor professionals at local level, I am sure the €1 billion allocated each year in respect of professional fees is not being well spent. Perhaps the Leader will ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to investigate the curious case of how an organisation which got matters so wrong in the first instance was asked to correct its own mistakes. I hope the firm in question does not request that it be paid for both sets of work.