No more money should be paid out to public servants under the benchmarking process until "real service improvements" are secured, the leader of Fine Gael, Mr Enda Kenny, said yesterday.
Mr Kenny made the withholding of further benchmarking payouts pending reform part of a "new agenda for Irish business", which he outlined during a speech to the Waterford Chamber of Commerce.
He said that benchmarking was an excellent idea but had been "debased and demeaned in this country", saying that there had been no attempt to identify best practice. Also, he said, the "evidence" cited to justify the awards had never been made public.
"We say, revisit the process. Make sure we remodel our public services around the consumer, not the provider. Above all, let us see real and quantifiable improvements before any additional monies are paid out."
Mr Kenny said other key elements of his party's new agenda for business would include raising the audit limit for small business from €317,000 to €3 million in turnover, bringing the State into line with its EU partners. He also said the party wanted to see the threshold at which VAT is collected raised to €100,000 from €50,000.
Mr Kenny said the Government should be working to freeze charges from "profitable, monopolistic State utilities" to ensure that it is part of the inflation solution, "not part of the problem".
"Fine Gael's proposals to business are aimed at streamlining the way the State engages with the private sector and ensuring that the manner in which the State manages its finances doesn't undermine the viability of private enterprise."
The Fine Gael leader was strongly critical of the Government's performance in introducing reform in relation to insurance, banking and the professions. He said reform in these areas needed to be not just fast-tracked but railroaded. He said that, two years on from first being announced, the Competition Authority was saying it would not have final reports on the professions ready until 2004.
"But instead of taking immediate action, the Government sits on its heels, casually revealing that it will take three years, three years, for it to produce a comprehensive report to address vital issues such as why you and I can't get direct access to barristers, or how businesses could be developed to bring together vital services - legal, accounting and taxation - that could be an efficient and effective one-stop shop for people like you."
Mr Kenny added that new legislation should not impact negatively on business. Any analysis of legislation was done behind closed doors by the Civil Service and kept secret, he said.
However, Fianna Fáil deputy Mr Pat Carey said the Fine Gael agenda for business had "as much meaning and substance as an episode of Celebrity Farm".
