Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wrote to committee Chairmen in January and my idea was this would be a whole-of-year process and not something that would take place on the eve of the budget. That would have meant that the committee, for example, would have met the Ombudsman, considered her budget, checked staffing, efficiencies, back office supports and so on, or considered the budgets for the Public Appointments Service or the State Laboratory. I envisaged that the committee would have had all this done as part of the process. I can tell members the information submitted to my office by each body, what is their bid and my discernment of it, but I wanted the committee involved in the process to make an independent assessment of whether we should spend in a specific area or the Ombudsman, for example, needs more or less resources because of the review. She was given 25 initial staff and the question is whether that is enough. That is the sort of drilling down I hope the committee will do rather than having a debate in the abstract.