economic crises

We are facing the most serious economic crises in 80 years, if Ireland is to survive this crisis and retain its financial and economic independence we will need to take tough decisions.

There is no easy way out of this; there are no soft options that will work. We cannot afford the current level of state expenditure, we have to cut and we have to cut deep.

When it comes to cuts I have a simple philosophy- we need to defend the services that people need and that make a tangible difference to people's lives and deliver real value to citizens and the state. Anything else needs to justify its existence and prove it can deliver real value.

There are currently in excess of 600 separate departments and agencies. What are they all doing. To give one example there are approx 40 agencies which have an input into Primary School Education, yet a Primary Principle recently made the point that if you abolished all of them, and the Department of Education, as long as you had a payroll system and a means of evaluating children with special needs then the primary education could motor on successfully for the next five years and neither teachers nor pupils would know the difference.

Or take for example the Equality Authority, do we really need a Government Agency to write a report criticizing Pat Kenny on the Late Late Show for stating that some toys would be popular with girls or others with boys. Get real no we don't we need guards on the street- protecting the peace not the PC police.

If a quango can't explain the value it delivers to the public in one short paragraph cut and cut it now, and put the people in the Agency to do something useful like providing secretarial support in Garda stations to free up police officers to go on the beat

In government I do think we could run the country with less junior Ministers
In my own opinion there is a need for only five junior ministers operating at the following departments, the Department of the Taoiseach, Department of Finance, Department of Health and Children, Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The junior ministers would exist as follows; Minister of State at the Department of An Taoiseach with special responsibility as Government Chief Whip. Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works. Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with special responsibility for Children and the Elderly. Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform with special responsibility for Equality. Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for European Affairs.
The recent Late Late Show debate on the Senate got many people questioning the importance of the Upper-House. My understanding was that the initial intention of the Senate was to incorporate the best minds from different levels of Irish society such as culture, education, labour, agriculture etc. At present the current Senate has evolved into a very different creature. On the whole I cannot say there are very many professional senators. I feel that the Senate as it stands is little more then a waiting room for the Dáil. As a consequence and of the little relevance that it has in the process of legislation, I think it is time that the Senate is abolished. I would agree with a referendum to do so be held in conjunction with the local elections.



Since entering the Council in December I have been canvassing and there is hardly a door I go to where I do not hear about the excessive wages our parliamentarians receive. I agree entirely with these sentiments. With this budget the government must cut the wages of all TD's by 20%. Another startling fact many people are not aware of is that there are deputies at both sides of the house who have served as ministers and are in receipt of their ministerial pensions while being members of the Dáil. I do not fell this is sustainable or acceptable in the current economic climate. Ministerial pensions should only become accessible when those in receipt of them have left active politics, be it at Dáil, Senate or European level. As well as this I feel that it is an honour to serve as a member of Dáil Eireann. Thus I cannot imagine why it is necessary for TD's chairing committees to receive large salaries for doing so. I think this is another area where cuts have to be made.