Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I support the calls for a debate on the national development plan. It is important that we focus on such issues because they impact on the provision of infrastructure and competitiveness in general and, as was said, are significant in terms of employment creation. As someone who has supported the Government on the challenges faced and the difficult decisions it has been brave enought to take, I have said consistently that the manner in which we deal with the difficulties will determine how successfully and quickly we will eradicate them. I know the temptation might be - I do not say this is the case but moving in that direction must be resisted - to cut capital expenditure excessively rather than current expenditure. I was unhappy with the Croke Park agreement simply because I did not see how it was sustainable to maintain salaries at a level well in excess of that in other European economies. A second issue on public sector reform is the number within the service who are not performing and whose rate of productivity is at minimal level. Even good civil servants to whom one speaks recognise this and say such persons are a source of an embarrassment to them. Until we eradicate them from the system and save money, our difficulties will continue. I hope the debate will be broadened beyond the national development plan to include other issues.

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on what constitutes human rights. I refer to a gentleman by the name of Anand Grover, a UN reporter who issued a report on the situation in Poland. Not only did he find against the country on its restrictive abortion laws, he found that freedom of conscience on the issue of abortion was not tolerated. We need to debate these issues, otherwise we are going in a direction to which I believe nobody would subscribe.