Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

If one is promoting value for money, one can do that in a local supermarket. Getting value for money is a different thing. This is why it is important to actually state what we are looking for. Senator Barrett is looking for "independently audited assessments of the current, capital, present and future expenditure". It would be fantastic if this were to happen because it never happened when spending, which the public generally agreed with, was way too high, as we found out later.

Amendment No. 23 calls for the State to "conduct a fiscal plan reflecting the impact of proposed policies on a 2, 5, 10 and 20 year projection cycle". This would be very important given we are talking about a new way of operating. To bring in the Secretary General would be very useful and could be done separate to the normal accountability of the Minister, given that Secretaries General contribute to committees on occasion.