John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Are the minutes of the meeting of 27 September agreed to? Agreed. On matters arising, the note circulated to members last night outlined the options available to us to examine the issue of public sector allowances in the short timeframe between now and the budget. The proposal is that the committee should concentrate on the big allowances in terms of cost and application. It is suggested that in order to get a balanced view of these payments the committee should give the trade union movement an opportunity to make a presentation and that in this context, the ICTU be invited to make a presentation. We could start with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and use the information provided in the business cases, together with information supplied by Accounting Officers, to stress-test the main allowances, covering the bulk of the figure of €1.4 billion. A timeframe is suggested that would see a report published two weeks from the budget. The committee will appoint a rapporteur to assist members in dealing with this issue in the light of the massive amount of paperwork that will be involved. We agreed to this proposal last week. Is the committee happy to proceed on the basis of this outline proposal?