Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know the issue of the travails of Uisce Éireann have been well ventilated in the past few days, and this is appropriate given the waste there is within the system and the little accountability demonstrated. I would like to raise a couple of important issues in regard to Uisce Éireann that have not appeared on the radar. First, we should not have been surprised by the spending on consultants. There is a propensity within the public service and local government to engage consultants at the drop of a hat for a range of issues. This happens despite the fact that a local authority might be laden within engineers within the system. To some extent, this is done to insulate those in the organisation from accountability, but that is wrong.

Also, there is very little openness in the recruitment of people into the public service and State companies. We have talked about this previously, but I ask the Leader to consider a debate on the issue. There needs to be greater mobility between the private sector and the public sector. People in the private sector must have the opportunity and equal access to jobs in the public sector and similarly from the public sector to the private sector. Both sectors would gain immeasurably from this because of the different strengths within each sector, with each helping the other.

I concur with the comments made by Senator Conway and Senator Rónán Mullen in regard to Tom O'Gorman. Senator Mullen made an eloquent and appropriate tribute, better than I would do. Mr. O'Gorman's death is a tragedy. Those of us who might occasionally engage with the Iona Institute would be familiar with him. He was a fine gentleman who did excellent research and was a fine person. His death is so sad. I would like to go beyond his death to the fact that in the first week of January there was almost a murder per day.