Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I concur and agree with the route the Minister is taking and I have no difficulty in that regard. Like others, I concur with what has been said and agree with the concept of this process of the PEACE programme. It has gone according to the expectations envisaged in 2007.

There is one area on which I would ask the Minister to be mindful and use whatever influence he can, especially in the context of his Government position, that is, the acknowledging of the past and dealing with it. As the Minister stated, the programme looks to record of the complex history and experience of Northern Ireland and the Irish Border counties, and ranges from trauma counselling for victims and survivors to all those who have been injured, affected and maimed, physically and mentally. There are many victims of that unfortunate and sorry saga and many families have yet to get closure in this regard by virtue of remains that are still missing. I would ask that the Minister use whatever influence he can to highlight further the plight of those affected by that sorry saga in our history. I would hope he would use whatever influence he can to bring some form of closure for families who are still awaiting the remains of their loved ones as a result of that conflict.

The other point I wanted to make was on the Estimate of the Department and the spending that has been incurred during the course of the year. I recently tabled a question to various Departments on consultancy fees for expertise engaged by those Departments.

The overall figure is approximately €6.5 million, almost 50% of which was spent by the Department. Is this as a result of the amount of work on Minister's desk, whether with regard to property tax, Irish Water or the changes in local government? Is it the case the largesse in the coming year will not be anything like what it has been, particularly with regard to the Department?