Here we go again. The Government never tires of wasting taxpayers' money. A sum of €750,000 was used to construct 14 steps and a ramp at Deer Park in Mount Merrion. Access to public spaces for people with disabilities is very important, but for €750,000 I was expecting a breathtaking feat of engineering. There is nothing spectacular, however. In fact, it is very ordinary, literally just steps and a ramp. The only breathtaking thing about this is the cost. Three quarters of a million euro was forked out from the public purse. Procurement experts have described this spend as wildly excessive. I describe it as downright insulting to people. I have raised issues of waste with the Taoiseach time and again, but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have not learned a single thing from the litany of waste that is now the hallmark of the Government. They are serial wasters of public money. Hundreds of thousands of euro for bike sheds; €1.4 million for a security hut; €500,000 for a perimeter wall; €20 million renting offices that lay empty; and over €100,000 on a scanner for the National Gallery that lay idle for almost a decade. Little wonder then that the PAC's report yesterday pointed to serious and persistent deficiencies in spending oversight from the Department for the arts. This is the case right across Government. The list of waste is as long as your arm. I could go on but I would be here all day. While the Government pours millions of euro of people's money down the drain, workers and families count every single euro just to get by. This is the same Government that delivered a budget of €9.4 billion that left people worse off and cancelled energy credits as families struggled to light and heat their homes. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael keep the strings of the public purse very tight for working people. They are on the ball there and very diligent but, by God, they are happy for people's cash to be blown at every other turn. There is no oversight, governance or accountability and nobody shouting "Stop". In the grand scheme of the Government's billions, €750,000 might not mean a lot to it, but it would pay the salaries of 20 new special needs assistants or 20 new nurses for a year. Instead, the money is spent on a few steps and a ramp that surely could have been built for a fraction of that cost. It is scandalous. The Government is incapable of dealing with what is clearly a widespread systemic problem. Tá €750,000 caite ar chéimeanna agus rampa. Léiríonn sé sin go bhfuil an Rialtas fós ag cur airgead amú ar nós is cuma leis. The Government is allowing this waste of public money to happen over and again and is doing nothing about it. I have two questions for the Taoiseach. Does he believe that €750,000 for steps and a ramp represents value for the people's money? Does he now accept that a waste audit across Departments, as called for by Sinn Féin, is now urgently required to get to grips with this constant waste?
Sentiment score: -0.02
So bad and so chronic is the pattern of waste that even the Government's own Members have to acknowledge it, even if the Taoiseach cannot.
Sentiment score: -0.76
That is where we are at. If this were a one-off event, that would be one thing, but it is not. This is now part of an established pattern of waste on the Government's watch. It is persistent and is right across Government. It is not simply local authorities; it is right at the heart of the Government. To add insult to injury, the Government that tolerates, allows and is asleep at the wheel while vast sums of public moneys are wasted is the same Government that is very vigilant, mean and tight when it comes to working people. I ask again, as he is the Taoiseach and not I, if he will instigate a waste audit right across Government. That is what is required. Or will he simply allow the people's money to be wasted again and again and again?
Sentiment score: -0.22
Yes, you do.
Sentiment score: 0.40
That has been the case for a long time.
Sentiment score: 0.00