Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am giving notice now. We have a busy work agenda and the committee has had an extremely busy working agenda because it has to deal with my Department and the Department of Finance. We need to have a smooth interaction to ensure the committee can schedule business in a way that is appropriate to the membership.

We have made good progress on an ambitious reform agenda. I am mindful that we have a large public service employing approximately of 300,000 people. We face enormous challenges financially with an ever decreasing ceiling of expenditure but it is also an opportunity for all of us in this crisis to fundamentally examine the way we deliver services and do our business to see if we can do it better, more efficiently and, at the end day, provide a better service to the people who fund us.