I add my voice to the welcome for the Secretary General.
I believe it will take more than putting a snout to the bottom of the barrel and fortifying oneself with the flesh in the barrel. The Minister will need a full metal jacket when he knocks on the doors of the people of south County Dublin. From speaking with people who have contacted me recently on issues that relate to them, I do not believe their priorities are about resolving an unresolvable problem with the Judiciary.
For months after the Minister, Deputy Ross, was appointed, he appeared to have gone into hiding. We assumed that he was coming to grips with the enormity of the task of becoming the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport at a really difficult time and because of the range and breadth of issues facing him. Sadly, I was wrong. Perhaps I should have known. I served in the Seanad for the term between 2002 and 2007 with the then Senator Ross. He was always given to the sound bite and in many cases it was form over substance. When he was appointed to the Cabinet I believed that this might change and that he was developing a plan for the transport, sport and tourism sectors. We still await the plan. For months he failed to meet with companies in the public transport sector during a period of a lot of industrial unrest. He did not meet the workers and I am not so sure that he met some of the people in his own Department with responsibility for that area. When Bus Éireann was on strike across the country he showed absolutely no empathy with the travelling public who use public transport. He just sat back and waited for it all to move on, causing huge damage to the State and for those who use public transport.
I should not be surprised. If one goes back over Deputy Ross's history, it can be seen that he had a great campaign when he was a Senator and wanted to make his way over here from the rarefied halls over there. He realised he had to become a little more punter-focused and a little more consumer-driven. He led a campaign to resolve a problem that was already being resolved. Some people may have forgotten about it. He set himself up as the champion of the motorist on the M50, when the then Government was already addressing the issues around implementing barrier-free tolling. Evening after evening, as motorists were stuck waiting to cross the M50 or get through the toll barrier, the then Senator Ross was on "Five Seven Live" or whatever radio station that would have him, expounding on the problems and how he had the solution. This was even as the problem was under resolution. At present, however, when we again are reaching gridlock on the M50, when there are no toll barriers and when congestion and the capacity of the M50 are reaching the threshold beyond which they would have a serious drawback on the economic activity of Dublin, the Minister, Deputy Ross, is coming forward with no plans. There are no plans that I am aware of or he is being pretty silent about them. The people who drive home this evening from work and who use the M50 might well recall their great champion from some years ago. As a Minister he really can make a difference now, but he is concentrating on the resolution of problems that in my humble opinion do not exist.
The Minister, Deputy Ross, made a name for himself, he got elected and he has folded the tent. As the great hunter of scapegoats in the Seanad, he recognised another punter issue; house prices were then escalating at an enormous rate. People were queuing day after day for auctions. A show house would open and the queues would get longer. The first ten houses would be sold in a new development for €300,000 and a week later the next ten houses would be released for €320,000. The house price situation escalated out of control at the time. He led a big campaign on the issue and who did the then Senator Ross blame at the time? The hapless auctioneer, that is, the person whose duty, responsibility and role in life was to get the best return for the vendor. The then Senator Ross led a campaign in the Seanad. Day after day and week after week, he traipsed in. He wanted to bring in all sorts of regulations and he was going to put these people on the back foot. All the while it was clear that it was the lending practices and policies of certain financial institutions that had led to the escalation in house prices. Do Members know what the then Senator Ross said next? He was enamoured of the chief executive of one of the financial institutions - the institution was Anglo Irish Bank and the chief executive was Seánie FitzPatrick. The then Senator Ross was so impressed with the work of Seánie FitzPatrick and the way in which he grew value in Anglo Irish Bank that he suggested Seánie FitzPatrick should be Taoiseach. That is the kind of analysis and approach that is - for me - synonymous with the Minister, Deputy Ross. He has been an appalling failure in his role as the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport.