Page 4039 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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That was the reason why Ms Maher, I am sure, when she read that particular Hansard, thought, "This is very interesting. Why is the Minister saying that he is going to have all these increases in places, all these extra licences, and still be able to do it with the same staff?". So, it was quite natural, I would suggest, for Ms Maher to follow that up, particularly in view of her knowledge that there were going to be cuts in those services within that area.
Was the Minister saying, when he answered the question in the Estimates Committee on 8 October 1991, "Yes, we are going to be able to fix all that up, look after those extra 80 places, but we are going to do it with two less staff"? Why did the Minister not say that at the time if he knew that was the case? Why did he not say, "Yes, but we are going to cut the number of staff. We still think we can do those extra 80 places with the staff we have at the moment"? Why did he not say that at the time when the question was asked? Why did he not say that when I followed up, suggesting that he was confident that he would be able to do it? What he said was this:
You would be aware there has been significant administrative changes throughout this area following - particularly, the Callaghan report - that indicated that perhaps some of the ways the paper had been kept in the past were less than satisfactory. There has been significant administrative improvements and reform in this area over the last 18 months or so and efficiencies have been achieved across the board.
I am not quite sure what that has to do with the licensing or the staff. What we have, once again, is a Minister telling me, anyway - that was my understanding of it - that he is going to continue to look after this area and be able to license the 80 new child-care places with the same staff. Now, he is telling us - - -
Mr Connolly: Without additional staff.
MR JENSEN: Now, without additional staff. Ah, he is condemned out of his own mouth in an interjection - without additional staff. We now find out in answer to a question from Ms Maher that he is actually going to cut the staff. So, Mr Connolly, you are going around and around in circles. You continue to dig yourself deeper and deeper into a hole.
Why are you not man enough to stand up here in this house and say, "I am sorry. I may have made a mistake"? All this would have been avoided. If Mr Connolly is prepared to do that here today, to stand up here in the house and say that he is sorry, to stand up and say, "I may have given the wrong impression; I apologise to the house for doing that; I will try not to do it again", I am sure that
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