Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The squandering of taxpayers' money is a good point for me to start off on. The Senator overlooks the fact that his party has been in government for over three years. He is absolutely right. Taxpayers' money is being squandered right across the board in various Departments. I concur fully with everything Senator Brennan said about tax rates. They need to be reduced dramatically. The USC is a huge imposition on people. It was brought in to address the fiscal situation and is at an unsustainable level. Certainly, there should be an immediate move to reduce it to at least 3% or 4%.

I fully support the call by Senator MacSharry for a debate on the report on maternity services and I welcome the fact that the Leader confirmed yesterday that there will be a debate on this issue. I urge caution on the part of Government Members so that they do not rush to defend the indefensible. This leads to group-think and bad policy decisions. They are not really serving their parties or Government well by doing that. They are far better off challenging them on policies that are not in the interests of our citizens. If this is followed through on, it will undoubtedly have implications for the north east, as Senator MacSharry has highlighted. As the Leader knows, it will also have significant implications for the south east where there has been concern in the past with regard to the continuation of maternity services in a number of our hospitals there which provide an extremely good service. There needs to be a debate. We need to ensure that the Minister shows leadership in that Department and pursues and implements policies that are in the interests of the people of the country rather than those of people working within the HSE, many of whom do not work. However, it is hard to have confidence that the current Minister is the one to do it.