Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 26 Jun 2024

I move:

That Dáil Éireann approves the nomination by the Taoiseach of the Minister of State, Deputy Jack Chambers, for appointment by the President to be a member of the Government.

I wish to inform the House that the President, acting on my advice, has accepted the resignation of Deputy Michael McGrath, as a member of the Government. I also wish to inform the House that I and the Government are nominating Deputy Michael McGrath as Ireland’s next member of the European Commission. I intend to assign the Department of Finance to Deputy Jack Chambers.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank Deputy Michael McGrath for his work over the past four years as Minister for Finance and Minister for public expenditure previously. Michael, over the past four years, you have worked tirelessly to improve the lives of our citizens through careful management of our public finances. You have skilfully found compromises in a three-party coalition to the most challenging of circumstances. Budgets are never easy, but even in the trickiest situation, you have found pathways forward working closely with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, without a bad word ever been uttered. Yet, anyone who mistook your politeness for lack of steeliness certainly quickly found out how wrong they were. Today, while one chapter of your career closes, a whole new and exciting opportunity awaits representing Ireland and indeed, in due course, representing the European Union as a member of the Commission. I hope and know this is the moment of enormous pride for you, for your wife, Sarah, for your children, and for your beloved mother, Marie. I am sure, too, it would have been a day your father, Jack, would love to be here to see and I have no doubt he is looking down with great pride. I wish you every success in the future. You are now Ireland’s nominee for European Commissioner, and it is imperative that we all work together to support you and to support Ireland to secure an important, influential and impactful portfolio. I will work with you, the Tánaiste, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and coalition leaders over the coming months to ensure the best outcome for this country.

I also want to take this opportunity to formally thank Mairéad McGuinness, who will finish as Commissioner later this year. Mairéad has been a formidable Commissioner. She has driven forward the development of the capital markets union, promoted the financial services of the European Union and protected the financial stability across the EU. She also prioritised financial literacy in ensuring that every citizen across Europe has access to the basic skillsets needed to understand their finances. She has proudly represented this country as Commissioner for the past four years but has represented Ireland at a European level for more than 20 years. I want to thank her here today.

I also want to take this opportunity to sincerely congratulate Deputy Jack Chambers on his appointment as Minister for Finance. As Taoiseach, I look forward to working closely with him over the coming months as we prepare an important budget, the final budget of this Government's mandate. Together, we must work to protect the economic gains this country has earned and to deliver real and meaningful benefits for people right across our country. While this Government has seen significant change in recent weeks and months, the three parties have continued to work together because our Government has never been rooted in personality, but rather, it is rooted in the policies of the programme for Government. It is that common anchor that has helped us deliver a stable Government to work for the people. I know the three leaders of the three parties in this Government are committed to working with Deputy Chambers, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and all colleagues in Cabinet to deliver a summer economic statement and, later this year, to deliver a budget that protects our country’s hard-earned progress, and a budget that delivers for families and for workers, businesses and farmers right across Ireland.

I am proud of the shared partnership that has been built by the three parties in coalition since 2020. Challenges never go away in politics; they just change and the work must continue. This Government has been founded on the principle of mutual respect and, together, we will work day and night to fulfil the ambitious agenda we set out in our programme for Government. Today we recommit to continuing that work.

I am please to support the motion that Dáil Éireann nominates Deputy Jack Chambers to the President for appointment as a member of the Government. Is pribhléid domsa tráthnóna inniu an tAire Stáit, an Teachta Chambers, a mholadh mar Aire Airgeadais na tíre. Is fearr cumasach, ábalta, éirimiúil é a bhfuil sárscileanna anailíseacha agus eagrúcháin aige. Tuigeann sé cosmhuintir na tíre agus is polaiteoir éifeachtach den scoth é.

I will begin by acknowledging the work of Deputy Michael McGrath, who has resigned from the Government and whom we have agreed to nominate as a member of the European Commission. When this Government was formed four years ago, we were in the middle of the fastest-moving and deepest recession ever recorded outside of wartime. There was a dramatic increase in unemployment and the world economy was in freefall. Protecting lives and livelihoods was the dominant work at that time. As the Minister responsible for public expenditure, Deputy Michael McGrath faced an enormous challenge, finding ways to fund urgent and unprecedented expansions in public supports at a time of collapsed world trade and economic activity. In a steady partnership with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the leaders of the Government, he helped to ensure that Ireland limited the economic damage of the pandemic and recovered faster and more comprehensively than most countries. As Minister for Finance, he ensured a balanced approach, helping to fund sustainable increases in public services and also encouraging the economic activity essential for job creation and Government revenue. The creation of unprecedented reserve funds will ensure Ireland is in a position to respond to major disruptions and can implement lasting investments in our infrastructure and movement to a more sustainable economy and society. This is a fine record for four years as Minister. It comes on top of two decades as a serious and effective member of this House. Deputy Michael McGrath is highly qualified to serve as EU Commissioner and has demonstrated his capacity for focused and effective work on vital economic issues. I thank him for his service to our party and this Government. I have no doubt the people of Cork South-Central, whom we both have the great privilege to serve, will be proud of his work in the years ahead. I also pay tribute to the outgoing Commissioner, Mairead McGuinness, for her sterling work on behalf of the country.

Deputy Jack Chambers has been a member of this House for eight years and has held ministerial responsibilities for the past four. During this time, he sat at the Cabinet table and at wider Government discussions. Always completely on top of his brief, he is a constructive and focused contributor to deliberations. He is by nature not someone who looks for problems to exploit or to find opportunities to shout and denounce others. He understands that in politics as much as in any walk of life, the emptiest vessels make the most noise. There are those who often seem more interested in having an impact in the media than an impact on solving problems and delivering progress. He is emphatically not someone like that. In every role Deputy Chambers has held as a public representative and as a Minister of State, he has distinguished himself as a committed and tireless servant of the Irish people. As Government Chief Whip during the Covid pandemic, he worked with the Ceann Comhairle and all parties to return as quickly as possible to holding sessions where Ministers could be questioned in depth. He ensured that Government measures were published, debated and enacted as quickly as possible while still receiving due scrutiny. In his more recent role in the Department of Transport, he has visited every part of the country to ensure that urgent projects have proceeded and has met community groups to hear their concerns. Drawing on his academic background in law, politics and medicine, he has been an excellent colleague, always available to give an informed and constructive opinion. While he will be the younger person nominated to serve as Minister for Finance since Éamon de Valera nominated Michael Collins to the post in April 1919, his experience is already well beyond that of many who have held the post in the past. He has wide knowledge of Government, experience in dealing with every Department and is ready to tackle the vital agenda of the Department of Finance without delay.

It is a special day when one is nominated to serve as a member of the Government of a free republic. I congratulate Jack on earning this well-deserved appointment. Of course, no one who has the privilege of serving in Dáil Éireann is here solely because of their own efforts. We all draw on the support of our families and wider supporters. I acknowledge Jack's parents, Frank and Barbara, who always encouraged him in his commitment to public service and have been with him every step of the way. I also acknowledge the tireless work and support of the members of Fianna Fáil in Dublin West, who got behind Jack over a decade ago and have been with him every step of the way since then. In the coming months, he will face a full agenda with budget preparation and the complex legislation that goes with it. Ireland has a strong economy but we have nothing to be complacent about. We have to protect and improve the foundations for good employment, generating the revenues essential to fund a modern, progressive State. The disruptions of the pandemic and a wide range of geopolitical issues including Russia's imperialist aggression against a European state, combined to demand a balanced and sustainable approach to economic and fiscal issues. Together with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, he will work with the rest of the Government to respond to urgent needs and guarantee strategic investments which will benefit all parts of our country. He will focus on helping to reduce the impact of high costs facing families and improving the public services on which they rely. There is still much work to be done during the remainder of this Dáil's mandate. The appointment of Deputy Chambers to serve as Minister for Finance ensures that this critical portfolio will continue to be led with quiet and effective determination.

We are fortunate in this State that our Government operates with Cabinet and with collective responsibility. In neighbouring jurisdictions, such as the UK, people might look back in future decades and say that perhaps too much power was centralised No. 10 Downing Street. I have nothing against the current Taoiseach but we have not done that. We retained the ability that any member of the Cabinet can say, "No, I have my doubts. I question this". I have been in Cabinet for about eight years in total and have never once seen a vote. People think you vote in Cabinet - you never vote; it is collective responsibility.

That brings strength, particularly at times like these, when we see significant change in leadership and ministerial roles. I am confident this Government will see out its term because it has a Cabinet that works collectively. My Cabinet colleagues know this; you respect each other, listen to each other and work together. We will dearly miss Deputy Michael McGrath. Three things that are noteworthy about Michael in my experience over the years. He first came to public prominence in that difficult time from 2007 to 2010. He was one of the people you would see on television discussing the financial crash, a harrowing period. He brought a calm authority and a sense that, thank god someone can explain some of this to us, which was important at the time. He had a good understanding of economics and finance and the everyday way of explaining it in a way that was not panicked or stressed. Second, history will be kind in looking at that period during Covid and the Ukrainian war, during which there was a cost-of-living crisis. Collectively, with Paschal, the two together were able to put in place significant financial transfers to protect our people, support businesses, provide social welfare and other increases. There was a huge stimulus. People said all those billions would not be deployed but they were. The two together managed our public finances in a way that saw us through a difficult economic period. It was difficult in every way, not just economic. Third, and perhaps most importantly, in the past two years in his role as Minister for Finance, he set us on a course where we invest in the future Ireland funds that protect us from what has cursed this country over the decades - boom and bust - and not being able to do counter-cyclical investments. What Paschal and he, in particular, as Minister for Finance, in setting up those future funds will be important. We will miss him but the whole union will benefit from him being in Brussels, where I expect the European Green Deal to be at the centre of the future economic strategy. It is our only competitiveness play and our only way of getting security and addressing the biggest ecological crisis challenge of our time.

My first memory of Deputy Chambers is that he was, in effect, replacing Brian Lenihan Jnr. Those were not small boots to fill. It was not an easy thing to replace Brian Lenihan Jnr. in Dublin West. He is another hero of that time. As the media reported in recent days, Jack and I have worked together in the Department of Transport and have had our differences but that makes him qualified for what is to come. We were able to overcome differences and still get on. As Minister of Finance, more than anything else, you need to be able to say no. It cannot be no, nay, never. It has to be no, maybe, okay. Then, you have to maintain the relationship and get over the fight, challenge and difference and work a way through. In the past two years, what I have seen him do gives me confidence that with him as Minister for Finance, we will be able to agree a budget. The one red line on the budget is that it must protect the most vulnerable, as our last four budgets have. If the budget does not do that, it is not agreed in our Cabinet. We have to protect the diversion of money into those future funds. We cannot dip into what Michael has set up because it is in the national interest, even though it may not be popular.

It cannot be a giveaway budget that takes from the future to pay for political gain today. We have eight months to go. As a Cabinet, we work collectively to deliver as best we can.

This is a big day for Teachtaí Michael McGrath and Chambers. They are elevated to high office as this Government is in its endgame, as Europe stands at a crossroads and as the world watches on at the relentless slaughter in Gaza. My first message to the Government and to its nominee to the European Commission is that nobody representing the Irish people can support Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as President of the Commission. She has acted in support of Israel as it slaughters Palestinian children, civilians and refugees. She has enabled to Israeli impunity as it breaks every rule of international law. Ireland must confront and condemn these actions. Ireland must stand with Palestine and Palestinian rights to self-determination and an end of occupation, annexation and apartheid. This is the most impactful and only position worthy of an Irish Commissioner.

We are now in the endgame of the Government. This is a Government that marked the long-awaited consummation of the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil partnership. Parties in government together since 2016, they have held power individually and together since the foundation of the State. These are parties that above all else display a total commitment and belief to staying in power. These are parties of the insider class, the political establishment and a political cartel.

The country has had enough of Fine Gael in power, enough of Fianna Fáil propping them up, enough of record homelessness, eye watering rents and runaway housing prices and enough of a Government which believes that €500,000 is the price of an affordable home. A general election is coming; it cannot come soon enough. When it does, Sinn Féin will make its case and the people will make their choice.

-----on housing, on health, on the opportunities to build a good life here, where housing is affordable, where healthcare is accessible, where the State has your back and supports you when you need them. That is what we need. That is what Sinn Féin offers: a Government that is on the side of workers and families, opening the corridors of power to the voices of ordinary people, new people with new ideas, ready to prove ourselves and to prove that we can deliver something better.

This is why we will not be supporting the nomination of Teachta Chambers as the Minister for Finance. We believe that the country is ready for something new and not simply a rejig or a reshuffle of personnel that sees no change in policy and no change in direction. We need the reset in housing demanded by the Housing Commission. We cannot continue with a Government that thinks workers can pay €500,000 for an affordable home as we see with the new so-called affordable housing scheme on Oscar Traynor Road here in Dublin.

We need better than leaving children with scoliosis on waiting lists for years and breaking promises to them again and again. That is what this Government has done. We need an end to policies that leave workers and families worse off since you came to office due to rip-off prices. The out-of-control costs must end. We can and we will do so much better so.

Bring on the election. Bring on the day on which people will have the choice as to who will lead the next Government. That day is long overdue.

I congratulate the Deputy Michael McGrath on his appointment. I thank him for his service in this House over many years and for his kindness to me when shadowing him as I was the Labour Party opposition spokesperson over the last few years. I congratulate the Deputy but I must also warn him, as the Leader of Sinn Féin did, that this House and the Irish people will not stand by the Government and him, as Commissioner, in supporting the reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen as President of the Commission. That is plainly obvious.

I congratulate the Deputy Jack Chambers on his appointment as Minister for Finance. It is an enormous achievement of which he and his family can rightly be proud. Much has been made of the Deputy Chambers' youth. The commentary from some quarters has been nothing short of patronising. Age simply should not matter, but his performance and delivery will. That is how he will be judged. Deputy Chambers is from a generation of young people that is the first in the State's history that will likely do less well than their parents. They are highly educated but locked out of housing. It is a generation picking up the pieces from a climate catastrophe created by other generations. Deputy Chambers will owe it his generation to be much more radical than his predecessors were prepared to be. Being a young Minister for Finance will not matter if he is as conservative as the rest.

We live in a rich country that feels so poor and the new Minister will have a limited time to make a difference but he can. His big task is the delivery of budget 2025 if he gets to bring that budget to the House at all. The scale of the challenges facing our society and our economy are big but they can be addressed. October's budget must show that Fianna Fáil once again understands something it has not comprehended for most of its recent history, namely that it is only the State, led from the centre, that has the authority, the mandate, the power, the capacity and the resources to transform lives, societies and our environment. I ask that Deputy Chambers will not be a conservative but that he will be a reformer and show us that he is different. The deprivation and child poverty rates in the State should shame us in this very rich country. The new Minister for Finance cannot afford to not take radical action with his Government colleagues to give every child a decent start in life. The new Minister should commit always to making work pay, not simply through tax cuts but by resisting Fine Gael's efforts to backslide on the living wage. He will be under pressure to deliver a cost-of-living package and if he truly wants to make it easier to get by in Ireland in 2024 and 2025, he must use the money we do have, and which we can spend, on better access to improved health services, on education and transport services, to build more homes and to support renters with security, and not merely small tax breaks. Under this Government, the purchasing power of the pension has fallen off a cliff. This is to Fianna Fáil's shame.

Heed the Central Bank's warning that the economy is at risk of overheating, do not do anything in the budget to tip it over the edge, do not fuel the fire, listen to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, when they say that premature tax cutting at the same time as spending hikes risks tipping the economy over the edge - it is a long way back from there. Dump the reckless fiscal gimmickry that IFAC has quite rightly accused Deputy Michael McGrath of engaging in. Stop pretending that extra health spending and the resources we spend on accommodating those who come to Ireland fleeing war in Ukraine is accounted as a once-off expenditure. It is core spending. Do not insult the intelligence of this House and its citizens. Account for it in the way it should be.

I ask Deputy Chambers to take seriously the work of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare. Two years on, this Government continues to blank the commission's report. Show that commission the respect its work deserves and start implementing its measures. Our tax base is far too reliant on corporation tax from three to four big companies. We all know that the base is in danger of narrowing but this Government ignores recommendations, for example on ending expensive tax breaks in non-productive parts of the economy. Fine Gael has this weekend been throwing shapes on inheritance tax. I ask Deputy Chambers to do his generation a favour and stop reinforcing unearned privilege.

If he wants to support enterprise, and he should, I ask him to use the tax system to promote indigenous Irish firms and help them to bridge the yawning productivity and innovation gap we suffer from in this country. I ask him to help Irish unicorn firms to scale up, go global and stay global in future. While I am at it, I ask him to change tack and back international efforts to support international proposals now emerging concerning the introduction of a 2% wealth tax on billionaires. There is an open-and-shut case for doing it.

I wish the Minister of State well in his new role. He has ascended to very high office and he is to be congratulated. With this elevation comes enormous and onerous responsibility. In the short time he has in this new role, he can make a mark. More importantly, he can make a difference and help to change the direction of this country if he chooses to do so.

I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment to his new post. Today is undoubtedly a very proud day for him and his family. Some people have commented on his age and queried if it should exclude him from the role. While I am glad not to be the only one patronised because of their age, it goes without saying that I do not think the Minister of State's age is an issue. We need more young people in politics. We also need more women in politics and more people from under-represented communities sitting at the Cabinet table, but we will have to wait for the next Government for that to, hopefully, happen.

While I wish the Minister of State well in his new position, will anyone outside here really notice the difference? Will anything change other than a face at the Cabinet table? Will people struggling with the cost of living finally get the support they need? Will the hundreds of thousands of people locked out of homeownership finally get secure roofs over their heads? Will disabled people finally have access to the essential services they desperately need? Will parents struggling with the cost of childcare finally get relief? Will children living in poverty finally be a priority? Will carers finally get access to respite and sufficient financial support? Will our schools finally be properly resourced to provide quality education to all our children, including those with additional needs? Will our small and medium businesses finally get the help they need to keep their doors open? Will our climate targets finally be met or will they continue costing us in fines for not reaching them?

I could continue all day to list the areas that desperately need investment. There are so many people struggling and so many areas we need to target with support. The good news is that the Minister of State has a lot of money at his disposal in his new role. The Government had a surplus of €8 billion last year and expects to have a similar surplus this year. Ireland is undoubtedly a rich country and the Minister of State now will have a huge opportunity in his new role as the Minister for Finance to make a real and substantial difference in people's lives. The question is whether he will take this opportunity. I genuinely believe a better Ireland is not just possible but eminently achievable. Regrettably, an increasing number of people out there have lost hope of any possibility of this happening. They feel like the country is no longer working for them and the Government either does not understand or does not care about them.

I think this disillusioned feeling comes from a really profound sense of disconnect between where we are as a country and where we could or should be. It is a disconnect between the GDP per capita that makes us one of the richest countries in the world and 4,000 children growing up in emergency accommodation. It is a disconnect between full employment and 500,000 adults living in their childhood bedrooms. It is a disconnect between an €8 billion surplus and more than 600,000 people living in poverty. Is it any wonder that people feel disillusioned? Too many people are being left behind and they cannot see a way out that is not via the departure lounges in Cork, Shannon or Dublin airports. This Government is running out of time to make a difference.

The reality is that Deputy Chambers's tenure as Minister of Finance is likely to last mere months, so I wonder how he intends to use this time. Will his sole concern be with developing a short-term giveaway budget in advance of the general election in the hope of buying people's votes by giving them back a few euro of their own money or will he, instead, make structural changes and the critical investment we need to lift people out of poverty, put roofs over people's heads, support struggling families and target support to the most vulnerable in our society? "Show me your budget and I will show you your priorities" is a truism for a good reason. The way the Government spends its money tells us a lot about its focus. For example, last year's allocation to disability services was not just miserly but pathetic, a one-off payment to people who are disabled 365 days of the year. The new investment of just €65 million was a fraction of what the Government's own capacity review said was required to meet the unmet needs of disabled people. Tax breaks were given that favoured higher-income workers over those who have had to make choices between heating their homes and feeding their children. There was a failure to even spend the capital housing budget despite the enormous and growing housing disaster we are dealing with. Does Deputy Chambers want to be remembered as just the youngest Minister for Finance in 100 years or as the Minister who made the biggest difference in the shortest time possible to people's lives? This is the choice facing him, and I hope he will choose the latter option.

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry. The Taoiseach said the nominations of Deputies McGrath and Chambers to their new posts were about policies and not personalities. I agree, so I will focus on policy and not personality. First, it is extremely worrying that the discourse around Deputy McGrath's nomination to the European Commission is focused on the horse-trading going on in terms of support for Ursula von der Leyen to retain her post as President of the European Commission. This would be an outrageous price to pay for a senior portfolio in the European Commission. Ursula von der Leyen is complicit with genocide. She gave the green light to the horror Israel has committed and is continuing to commit in Gaza and she is undoubtedly one of the major blocks to the European Union imposing sanctions on Israel, especially to prevent the arms trade to that country that allows it to continue inflicting the horror it is visiting upon the Palestinian people.

Turning to the question of the finance portfolio, we will be voting, for policy and not for personal reasons, against the nomination of Deputy Chambers because we have had more than 100 years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Ministers for Finance. We think they have had their chance and have not delivered, not even when this country has more revenue and is wealthier than it has ever been. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have left us with an absolutely dire housing and homelessness crisis. While they have failed to invest the resources necessary to deliver social and affordable housing, the vulture funds, the corporate landlords and the people who profit from the housing misery of others have enjoyed a bonanza under their Government.

Even if we take the topical issue of RTÉ, a scandal that erupted as a result of the misgovernance and behaviour of a tiny group at the top is now resulting in the axing of decent jobs and, essentially, the privatisation of the public broadcaster because this Government will not finance public service broadcasting by imposing a tax on the profits of the digital companies – the social media companies – that could finance public service broadcasting. Instead, ordinary workers in RTÉ are being asked to, essentially, pay the bill for the bad behaviour and corruption of the public service broadcasting remit of RTÉ by commercial interests. Now, it is those commercial interests that will gain from the scandal we have seen in RTÉ. We believe it is not time to simply change the personalities or the image of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael; it is time for an election to give the people of this country an opportunity to elect a government that is not Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and will stand up for the interests of ordinary working people.

What is the legacy of the outgoing Minister, Michael McGrath? It is an Ireland where banks and financial institutions made profits of €5 billion plus last year while mortgage holders were stretched on the rack of consecutive interest rate rises. It is an Ireland where a privatised airline can make profits of €225 million but is prepared to bring the country to the brink of travel chaos rather than pay a cost-of-living increase to its pilots. It is an Ireland where young people are locked out of the housing market. The average price of a home in the city of Cork rose last year by €30,000, more than a year's take-home pay for many young workers. Jack Chambers, the nominee, is cut from the same political cloth as Michael McGrath. The new Minister for Finance may be young but he will deliver the same old, same old. Before I sit down, I will set the Minister a challenge for his first week in the job. Yesterday, the Dáil gave a standing ovation to a brave young woman from Limerick. Members should forgive me, but I am a bit sceptical about Dáil standing ovations. One that stands out in my memory is the one given to the nation's front-line health workers when the country was in the grip of Covid and they were working without a vaccine or even proper PPE. More than 100 of them – nurses – are back in the WRC this week to ensure that their dedicated long Covid sick pay scheme is not ended this weekend by the Government. Is the Minister in waiting prepared to act on this issue to prevent a terrible injustice from taking place? I will be watching that one very closely.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach. Ar dtús, guím gach rath ar an Aire Stáit mar gheall ar an bpost nua atá aige. Is post an-deacair agus an-tábhachtach é freisin. I wish the Minister the best of luck with the job he has before him. It is a very difficult job and a very important one as well. It gives an opportunity to develop a society which is prudent and that focuses on making sure that the State is sustainable in the long term, but also that money is focused on infrastructure and public services that are needed in this country. If done wrong, what can happen is a country can have its economy driven off a cliff, which happened to the Fianna Fáil Government in 2007. Likewise, if it is done wrong, public services can be atomised by a lack of investment, which happened under Michael Noonan when he was Minister for Finance.

One of the big issues at the start of anyone taking up a position is, first, that the person has the technical competency to be able to do the job. People are cautious. The Minister of State does not have experience in a senior ministerial role such as this, as of yet. The second issue is the fact that it often takes a year for a senior Minister to bed in to a Department. We know that he does not have a year to do that. One of the important elements in that regard is the ability of a Minister to drive the bus rather than be a passenger on it.

One of the big curses of the political system in this country is that we have a permanent government that often sets the direction of the Department and we do not have Ministers who are strong enough to push back against that. I will give an example. Prudence is important. This Government is one of the most wasteful governments that has existed in the history of the State. The example I wish to give is that of the national children's hospital, which is a monument to wastefulness in public administration. A number of elements of the building of the hospital need to be highlighted. The then Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, promised that it would be built by 2020 for the price of €700 million, save an asteroid hitting the planet, yet we still do not have an opening date for the hospital and we have a bill of €2.25 billion. For there to be financial and fiscal prudence, there must be accountability. However, we have an accountability-free zone in this State on those issues. Nobody has lost their job as a result of what has happened with the national children's hospital. Nobody has been moved sideways. Nobody has had a pay cut in any way in terms of delivering for the State in that regard. There has been no accountability. Accountability is a catalyst of change. If we do not have accountability, there will be no change and we will be cursed over and over again to wake up to these types of stories happening in the future.

I have done a little research on that project and my understanding is that Robert Watt signed off on the tender document that was initially issued by the Government for that project. I might be wrong. I have asked the Minister for Health that question but he has not given me the information. If the Minister of State wants to set a standard for accountability and financial prudence in his role, he would be able to openly answer that question for us. Who was the Secretary General who signed off on the tender document that allowed the project to balloon in the manner that it did? Are we going to see a Minister who will take responsibility for that and make sure it does not happen again, or are we going to have business as usual where nobody takes responsibility?

The other difficulty the Government has had is the inability to get funding to the front line of public services. We know for sure that the HSE and other Departments have had massive increases in investment recently, but we also know that there are serious crises in terms of front-line delivery right across the public sector. I just met with people involved in the childcare sector who tell me that childcare services are still closing on a weekly basis. The Government has reduced the cost of childcare but it is currently harder to access. Individuals have gone to hospital, for example, Aoife Johnston, in University Hospital Limerick. All she needed was antibiotic treatment for sepsis. She waited 15 hours to get properly triaged in order to be able to get it, but because of the warzone-like situation that exists in the hospital she was not given the drugs she needed to help her and, as a result, she lost her life.

There was a patient there just before her who was found dead on the floor of University Hospital Limerick. Because rigor mortis had set in, the patient could not be ventilated. Whether one likes it or not, that situation is replicated right across the service delivery in hospitals around the country due to the lack of hospital staff. One of the objectives that Deputy Chambers must have as Minister for Finance is to make sure that the funding gets to the front line in the delivery of public services.

Ar an gcéad dul síos, déanaim comhghairdeas leis an iarAire, an Teachta McGrath agus leis an Aire nua, an Teachta Chambers. I congratulate and compliment the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, on his appointment to the European Commission. It is a wonderful day and time for him. I wish him well. I also wish well his wife, Sarah, Tom, Jack, and the lads, and his mother and brother, Seamus, and the entire McGrath family.

I came into the Dáil on the same day as the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, soon to be Commissioner McGrath. We shared a lot of different endeavours in our early years in this House. I remember one case especially, but not with any sense of pride to be honest. It was a sad occasion when the late Brian Lenihan introduced a bailout for the banks. The Minister was looking for me around Cahir and he picked me up and carried me to Dublin. I am sorry I did not go missing and stay at home, which is what I wanted to do. I did vote for that, but that bank clean-out was the biggest political mistake I ever made in my life. It was not a bailout. It was unfortunate, but such is life. We learn from our experiences. Our friendship remains and I wish the Minister well in his new position.

I also wish the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, well in the Minister for Finance position. He did visit Ard Fhíonáin a year and a half ago. He was on a kind of roadshow, looking at the bridge and leaving it so, and promising us money. He will have to fix this bridge which has been closed for ten or 11 years. Now he will have the purse strings so I hope he will be able to deliver on his promise. He can give €350,000 to consultants on top of what they already got. Consultants are gobbling up money in this country at an enormous rate. That is an issue I have with the Minister, Deputy McGrath, as well in terms of his stewardship of public expenditure. The Cabinet signed off yesterday on a project that was meant to cost €700 million about ten years ago to bring a pipeline from Shannon to Dublin to give us all uisce here in Baile Átha Cliath. I get a good sup of it here from the ushers. They do not charge me for it. The project is now estimated to cost €6 billion. What has gone wrong in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform? I know the Minister is not there now, as it is Deputy Donohoe. They swapped chairs. The national children's hospital has already been mentioned. It is a runaway train with no accountability. How could a project that was estimated by Uisce Éireann, Irish Water, and others to cost €700 million now be put through the Cabinet yesterday for in the region of €6 billion? That is outrageous. Schoolchildren in second class would not do maths like that. We cannot have such costs. It is a mad project in the first place. We should fix the leaks here in Dublin and get water from nearer to Dublin, not pump it up through the entire midlands.

I am surprised at the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. He was going to give us tales from the Cabinet room some time ago, or at least he started but he then declined to do it. There is no doubt we will look forward to his book when he retires. He will give us some of the claims. The reason there is such friendship and cordiality in the Cabinet room is because he has got his own way. He literally wrote the book – the green book - for his colleague sitting beside him.

The Tánaiste wanted to be in power so he wrote a blank cheque. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, took the cheque and he has destroyed so many issues. I have great time for him personally but we have had carbon tax and all those other issues and scaring people about the country going on fire and the world going on fire. The only thing on fire is the Department of Finance, public expenditure and the runaway costs of so many projects. A contract from the Government now is like gold dust because people can change it or rewrite it or do anything they like and there is no cap on it or no penalty clauses. There is no accountability for any senior official. An official was mentioned a few moments ago by Deputy Tóibín. Where is the accountability? He got promoted to a different Department and sought €60,000 extra to go there after leaving a mess in the other Department. It is time that public officials were reined in and the elected Government did the business for the people to have proper management of our finances and proper services that deliver for our people, including daoine óga, daoine aosta and gach duine, and not to have the rip-off Ireland that is going on throughout the country. It is very sad to have to say these things but it is the fact of the matter as to what is happening as a result of the continuous Government of which Deputies McGrath and Chambers have been members.

On a personal note I wish the Minister, Deputy McGrath, well. I hope the cordiality will continue and that the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and many others who have contacts with various groupings ensure he gets a portfolio fitting to the needs of the country and that it suits him. I hope it will be an economic brief. I dearly hope we will get something better from Europe. On behalf of the Rural Independent Group I oppose the reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen. Tosach maith leath na hoibre but that would be a bad start for the Commission. The people of Ireland do not want it. We can see this and it is quite evident with her meddling and her statements at the start of the war in Israel. Go n-éirí go geal libh.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle I want to pay tribute to a favourite son of Sligo, Tommie Gorman, who has left us way too soon. Tommie was a highly respected and trusted journalist for whom context, accuracy and outcomes mattered just as much as the story itself. We also saw Tommie as a real person. Many people felt they walked alongside him on his personal cancer journey and his recovery. For Tommie, of course, his own cancer experience became the catalyst for ensuring the most innovative and effective treatments for neuroendocrine cancer were made available to all patients in Ireland at St. Vincent's hospital, just as they are throughout the EU and in Sweden. This was just one of the many voluntary activities and fundraisers he spearheaded. Tommie never did things by half. Tommie was rooted in Sligo with a sprinkling of Leitrim and he made sure everyone knew of his Sligo connections. Many people throughout the country felt a real sense of sadness when they heard of Tommie's death but that loss is deeper in Sligo. Tommie was one of the good guys and we were so proud that he was one of us. My sympathies to his wife Ceara, his children Joe and Moya, his sister Mary and brother Michael. Their loss is the deepest. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Today is also a day for good wishes to the two Michael Macs, Deputy Michael McGrath on his nomination as Ireland's nominee for European Commissioner and Deputy Michael McNamara on his election as an MEP, and, of course, to the man of the moment the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, on his appointment as Minister for Finance. I wish him well. If he does well the country does well but in this context I have some comments. The money he spends on budget day is the people's money, not Government money, and he is entrusted to spend it effectively and prudently. The Tánaiste is reported as speaking of the central role Deputy Chambers will have in planning the next election. I understand the reality of politics but his core role should be in planning for the next five, ten and 20 years. I ask that the one-off payments in the previous two budgets, particularly in the area of social welfare increases, are replaced by guaranteed flat rate increases year on year. This would make a real difference to those who rely on the payments in the medium and longer term. Then we could call our budgets progressive.

I wish the Minister, Deputy McGrath, well when he goes to Europe. I ask him to bat as hard as he can for this country. I know he has to do it for every country as a Commissioner but many crossroads are coming up for Ireland, such as the derogation and various pieces of legislation such as the nature restoration law and various other measures. I ask the Minister to be mindful of where he came from. I know he will and in fairness to him he has always been approachable.

I have known the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, for a while. I wish him luck. I will always say that he is very approachable. He is from good stock as some of his people originally came from the west of Ireland. He will be leaving the Department of Transport and I ask him to be mindful when he has the purse strings that funding for resurfacing many roads in Mayo, Galway and Roscommon has been pulled. The Minister of State is aware of this. I ask him to look at where resurfacing was to be done on national routes.

In his budgets I ask Deputy Chambers to remember that rural Ireland exists. With regard to the agricultural sector I say to him and to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, that we need to bring confidence into it. Everyone has been kicking it in recent years. I ask Deputy Chambers to show confidence to those farmers when he brings forward his budgets and make sure they are remembered and thought of.

The Minister for Education is beside Deputy Chambers. With regard to school transport I ask that we do not have the debacle of one child getting a school bus ticket while another does not. We need to make sure if we are to have public transport that every child is brought to school. As a minimum requisite we should have school buses for secondary school children to give them this opportunity. I wish Deputy Chambers well going forward. I can always say that when he was Chief Whip he was very courteous and helpful.