Shane Ross (Independent)

What is happening in that regard? No one has tackled this problem. The quangos have got away with murder in the budget, the reason for which I cannot explain. The level of current spending in CIE has been reduced from more than €300 million to €276 million, although I am open to correction by the Minister of State on that figure. It has been reported in an independent report that there are corrupt practices, kick-backs and enormous waste in CIE. It is a type of semi-State body which has run amok, yet at a time when we desperately need money, it is getting away virtually scot free in the budget. What is going on? One must believe it is easier to make crude cuts in child benefit than to tackle political protectorates such as FÁS and CIE. The Minister of State can puff all he likes, but there are on the boards of these agencies political appointees to beat the band. The other day the Government rejected a Bill in this House dealing with this issue. There is an industry of political appointees and money wastage that should have been tackled. Almost all appointees to semi-State bodies are paid handsomely for doing, in some cases, an extraordinarily bad job and for obeying the instructions of their political masters. This is the reason many of the semi-State agencies are monopolies and in such an appalling financial position. What is deeply lacking is an attempt to tackle the waste of enormous sums of money. We know there is waste in this sector; that is undisputed. Neither the Minister of State today nor the Minister yesterday made any acknowledgement of this waste because they are frightened to tackle this political protectorate which they have for so long protected.

I would like to hear more about the so-called solidarity bond, of which I am deeply suspicious. We are, apparently, to have a solidarity bond which will be open to investment by ordinary citizens to support the nation in some way. This sounds like a sucker punch. I do not believe "ordinary" citizens should be made this offer. It is either a commercially viable bond or it is not. It either has commercial appeal or it does not. The last bond of this type of which I am aware was the so-called War Loan introduced by the UK Government, a bond subscribed to by British citizens in a fit of patriotism. It sunk year after year and the people who were sucked in lost an enormous amount of money.