Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

Last night I met two parents of two young children, one a year and a half old and the other two years old, with severe disabilities and special needs. The two women concerned are doing the best they can for their children. They tell me that every support upon which they have been relying is slowly being taken from them, leaving them with nothing other than the support of family and friends in meeting the difficult challenges facing them. What judgment call or system of morality is guiding the decisions being made that allows the people concerned to suffer in that manner? For example, it was recently decided that it was appropriate to spend €4.5 million on the construction of a vulgar mansion, twice the size of the house of the Canadian Prime Minister, for our ambassador in Canada, yet we do not deem it appropriate to spend that amount of money on the most vulnerable in society. I am convinced there remains an enormous amount of waste within the budgetary allocations. For this reason, there is a need for a forensic analysis, perhaps expanding on the very good work done by Mr. Colm McCarthy, to identify the areas in which there is such waste. In doing so, there should be no sacred cows. I include in this our overseas development aid package which appears to be protected from such a forensic analysis.