Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. I will put questions during my initial contribution. I am all for reform and opening up the budget process to have meaningful input by Oireachtas committees such as this into the Estimates process but I spent a few hours going through the documents forwarded to us to get my head around what we are trying to do and I find it difficult to see any meaningful basis for the numbers set out in them. The Minister acknowledged in his opening remarks that the figures do not reflect the reality on the ground because of a number of issues. They are prepared on a no policy change basis, they do not reflect the ongoing restructuring in the Department, and we also have the admission by the various bodies in the other Votes, such as the Comptroller and Auditor General, Revenue Commissioners and the Appeal Commissioners, that if they are required to stay within the comprehensive spending Estimates ceiling, they will not be able to their jobs effectively. There are hard hitting comments in their contributions.

On the Estimates issue generally, the Department's four Votes seem to necessitate a broad cut of approximately 3%. There are no details as to how that will be achieved. The Revenue Commissioners have been clear that further reductions in their budget will impact on their ability to do their job and potentially will result in a revenue loss of more than €400 million. The Comptroller and Auditor General has said if his office is subject to further cuts in line with the Estimates, it will not be able to fulfil its constitutional mandate. I question the basis of these figures. Perhaps the Minister can put them in layman's terms and explains the purpose of this process and how we can meaningfully engage with him and have a proper input into the Estimates as he goes forward to prepare the budget.

The Minister made an extensive opening statement covering a broad range of sectors in the economy. He referred to the fact that the economy is growing again in GDP terms at least. It did so last year and it remains to be seen whether it will achieve the 0.7% growth target this year. Where will growth come from over the next few years? When will the medium-term fiscal statement be published? I understand it is due this month. Is the Minister looking at his Department revising the growth forecasts for 2013 and 2014 because they form the foundation of the budget he will present with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in December?

The Minister referred to the issue of mortgage arrears but did not refer to the striking intervention by the Central Bank director, Fiona Muldoon, yesterday. Does he agree with her sentiments that the banks are not doing enough and are not fulfilling their responsibilities, having been adequately recapitalised, to face up to the crisis in a comprehensive way and deal with each borrower in distress on a case-by-case basis? Can the Minister give us a sense of the work that is ongoing in the preparation of the budget? He must make a fiscal adjustment of at least €3.5 billion. Is he still looking at that figure in broad terms? Will he wait on the latest economic data, right up to the November Exchequer returns, before he finalises the overall adjustment and its composition? If he could give us a sense of the process, it would be most helpful.

Given the developments in Europe and the European summit meeting later this week, when the Minister sits down to prepare next year's budget, will it be adopted on a no change basis in the context of Ireland's bank debt and the promissory note and the interest bill to service the national bill? Will he prepare the budget on the basis that no deal will come into effect in 2013 in respect of ESM recapitalisation and a restructuring of the promissory note arrangement? Will the Minister give us a sense of how savings will be achieved in the various Votes within the Croke Park agreement framework and the Estimates ceiling? Given the way the process works, as the Minister indicated, there is little point going into each Vote because all we can do is examine the ceiling for the departmental allocation. We do not know yet how that will be allocated across the respective Votes.