Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

The general sentiment in the Seanad is a welcome of the principle of the Bill, which is to create greater focus on public expenditure. There has not been at any time a great record of control of public expenditure. Those who were around in the 1980s will recall the Government, led by the late Taoiseach, Dr. Garret FitzGerald, failed to arrest public expenditure resulting in the country being brought to its knees, which problem was arrested from 1987 onwards through very difficult political decisions which impacted upon people. We all recall the cutbacks in heath services and so on which occurred at that time and were necessary.

What we are trying to do is ensure this legislation is not all about optics or sharing out the important financial portfolio between Fine Gael and the Labour Party; that there is more substance to it than that. This morning, I welcomed the appointment of the Minister, Deputy Howlin, to his new portfolio. I specifically stated that while he had the intellectual capacity to do the job I was not certain he would do it. I am conscious that the Minister, Deputy Howlin, was the man who in the mid-1990s abolished water charges which took away a revenue stream of £600 million from the country to save the seat of the now Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton.