Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I apologise for being late as I was in another meeting. The point made by Deputy McDonald is very fair. Many of these allowances are doing a disservice to people in the public service, and a number of people I have met who are civil and public servants are nearly embarrassed by the legacy system that exists. They want to see it reformed. Where an allowance is pay for additional responsibilities, such a system also exists in the private sector. People doing a different job would get additional pay, and calling it an allowance is a bit of a misnomer. Such payments are grouped with allowances that are indefensible and outdated.

If the witness has answered any of my questions, he should feel free to tell me. I will certainly make my contribution to the committee's report on the business cases. The phrase "business cases" leaves much to be desired. I have read many of these and they are not really business cases because they are very sparse on detail. In some cases they do not answer all the questions that have been put. I take the point that resources are deployed to where the most savings can be made for the taxpayer but this committee will have quite a bit to say about the issue of business cases.

We spoke about the 1,100 allowances but where do we want to get to in terms of numbers? How far are we down the road? I presume that even after we have carried out wonderful reforms and streamlined elements into core pay, there will be a number of remaining allowances.