Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

Regarding Vietnamese adoptions, over 250 couples are stuck in limbo. They do not know where they are going and need direction and certainty. Equally, 29 couples are on a Russian blacklist because the Minister of State has not completed the post-placement reports. This is a very urgent matter.

I join others in expressing the public's genuine and palpable anger at the high levels of excess in the public service. I would like the Minister for Finance to come to the House to address this excess, especially at chief executive officer level. We have heard the outrage with regard to Mr. Rody Molloy, the €1.1 million add-on to his pension and the car. The Minister who approved this, whether it was the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, must be accountable for his or her actions. This is taxpayers' money which is needed to put toilet paper in schools, to offset education cuts and appease farmers who are at their wits' end and are finding it difficult to make a living. One cannot give away taxpayers' money without being accountable for it.

I agree with Deputy Enda Kenny. If there is excess by a Minister, a Ceann Comhairle or a public servant, that person must be made pay it back. If not, the Minister who approved the excess without bringing the matter before the Oireachtas for approval should pay it back. The same is true of excess by the chief executive officer of the ESB or by Dr. Brendan Drumm who presided over the greatest failed experiment in this State, namely, the HSE. This is wrong, obscene and immoral.

I appeal to the Leader to bring the Minister for Finance to the House to tell Members what he will do about excess at these levels of the public service. What are these people worth? We do not know their outputs.