Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

In that context, I refer to the British Government's initiative in recent months to bring in from the business sector the head of Topshop. Essentially, he was brought in to do the job the Minister of State has outlined in the national procurement service. Some of his detailed analysis in his survey is extraordinary, particularly on the amount of waste in the public service. I will not take up the time of the House by going into detail other than to say some of it was horrendous. It echos to a degree many of the conclusions reached not just in this year's report of the Comptroller and Auditor General but those of previous years in that there is still extraordinary wastage.

It dates back to the idea of social partnership when the trade unions and the Government of the day embarked on a series of debates which initially, if my memory serves me right, from 1987 onwards were about pay and conditions but by 2002 were about wider Government policy. Throughout that process the political eunuchs in both Houses were impotent and had no input whatsoever to what was happening. I understand the frustration of Senator Harris, but I can tell him that if he had been here during that period, particularly on the benchmarking issue, he would have been tearing his hair out because Members of this and the other House - I am talking about Government and Opposition Members - had no say. In fact, persons operating in the voluntary sector were appointed by small cohorts from around the country and given direct access to Government Buildings. They had their 15 minutes of fame on the evening news standing in front of Government Buildings telling the rest of the nation what they intended doing to make sure their agenda was pursued. The greatest flaw in the social partnership process was the deliberate exclusion of the elected Members of both Houses. If there had been a political input - I am not talking about the Government but elected Deputies and Senators who on a daily basis dealt with real people - many of the mistakes made during the process, particularly on benchmarking, would not have been made and reached the point of excess. I will readily admit that during that period I was receiving cheques and that when I gave them to my wife and she asked what they were for, I could not tell her because all that was written on them was the word "Arrears". Everything was backdated. We completely lost the run of ourselves and now the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, and the Government are trying to pick up the pieces. The Government and the trade unions might have learned a lesson, as we are facing this new reality. I mention this in passing because we definitely lost the run of ourselves in terms of the priorities set.

Also, a culture developed within the public service which now has to be addressed-----