Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am trying to ensure the horse is well and truly bolted in and that the door is not open for people to come back for more and more money. There needs to be a responsibility for accountability when a budget is agreed.

Let us not forget, this is public money. We cannot have a situation like with the HSE where, year after year, a budget is agreed and then it comes back halfway through the next year looking for more. Next year it will not be legal and the significant increases in budget we have seen halfway through a year, through Supplementary Estimates, will not now be facilitated. We have an arbitration process and a fair budget negotiation process and we should stick to what is in the Bill, which has been painstakingly put together to get accountability and the right balance. To introduce this would bring something else into an area that is already catered for. I am trying to be helpful in areas where the Deputy is raising issues but this is already catered for.