Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join in welcoming Senator Craughwell to the House. Having looked at his CV, I know that he has a major contribution to make to this House and I look forward to listening to him and to taking on board the issues that he wants to deal with in education. He did a very good job in his previous role in the educational sector.

I will now raise an issue on the budget.

It is interesting that when we talk about figures, we generally talk in general terms about the social welfare, education or health budgets. In recent days, a newspaper published an interesting analysis of how our money is being used. We need to get this information out there. According to the newspaper, a person who earns €36,000 has a total tax bill of €7,850, of which €1,128 is spent on education, €2,598 is spent on social welfare and social welfare programmes, and €1,823 is spent on health. It is important to give people information on how money is being used. We must make sure we get value for money. I suggest we are still not getting value for money in some areas. We need to work towards getting value for money. I have serious questions about the use by local authorities of the moneys they collect through commercial rates and housing rents. In the near future, we should debate whether the delivery of services by many State systems could be more efficient.