The Small Firms' Association has called on the Government to stop taking credit for macro-economic performance and get down to the business of making things happen.

"Who's in charge?" SFA chairman Mr Kieran Crowley asked the group's annual conference yesterday. Who was responsible for the bottlenecks which had developed in our roads, housing, water and waste management?

You could look across the major economic departments and see all the promises that were made and commitments that were given, he told 300 delegates at the conference. They were just not being delivered upon.

"We have seen a litany of failure on key issues," Mr Crowley said. "The Government is being taken before the European Court because of the poor quality of rural drinking water, it is threatened with a multi-million pound fine for failing to implement EU regulations on regional waste management, attempts to moderate the housing market have failed miserably, prices have doubled, waiting lists have risen and completion figures are falling."

Industrial disputes and strikes in rail, bus, airports and taxis cost Irish business 75,000 production days last year, he said.

In Aer Lingus there was talk of a fire sale at low value within the airline industry. "Hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money invested in that company seems to have disappeared," he said.

The outcome of the Nice Treaty was another example of the Government's weakness, Mr Crowley told delegates. When it appeared there was a substantial No vote, there was an unseemly scramble to perform the old cliche "show me where the crowd is going and I will hurry to be at their front".

The Government must forge ahead knowing it may leave some people behind it and know it could still go in and win elections.

It was time for strong leadership which was not afraid to take charge and lay the foundation for longer-term prosperity.