Mr. Mike Allen:

In response to Deputy Ó Ríordáin, I understand that this committee and the Government are getting demands from different sources and there clearly is a resource demand on capital investment. It is really important to acknowledge that there is a range of issues that are not about additional resources, and that there are segments of the Government which are faced with a particular individual or family who are faced with a crisis and who are making savings by not responding, with the net result that another part of the Government is faced with enormous costs. I am not talking about costs in years to come, because that is true. I am talking about enormous costs now and tomorrow. There is a range of issues which are not about resource demands.

I agree with what Ms Randall said about the 3% cut. However, it needs to be remembered that there already is a cut in what people are getting. Families are facing inflation every day and there has been a profound erosion in the living standards of people on social welfare, and that has been left out of the question. Deputy Doherty asked a question about the man who was sleeping rough on budget night and who will probably be sleeping rough on budget night again. As a policy analyst, I would say clearly that the best thing would be a housing first strategy to give that man a home with supports, but if we were to ask him, he would ask not to cut homeless services because he needs a decent place tonight, mental health support and so on.