Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Cullinane on that point. Deputy Ryan has made some comments. We are going to have a report by the end of the month. The sectoral committees will only be starting to get up and working at that stage. They can follow on from what we are suggesting. Those two issues can work hand-in-hand.

I have an issue with the work assumptions provided, in case there is a view that we all accept the working assumptions. I do not accept the working assumptions. My party colleague, Deputy Cullinane, remarked on how we continue to work within the statutory framework that exists at the moment. The committee will have to identify a fudge position. This will involve looking at Standing Orders in a way to either circumvent or stay within Article 17 of the Constitution. That Article only allows for the Taoiseach to make a recommendation of expenditure or tax-raising powers. It is not even open to a Minister - it has to be signed by the Taoiseach. We will have to identify a fudge position to allow for the committee to get up and working.

We need to give this committee the teeth it requires. I have no interest in sitting on a Mickey Mouse committee. If I am appointed to the later committee, it needs to be a committee of substance, one with strength and teeth. The only way to do that is to change the Constitution in the medium to longer term. I do not agree that we will always stay within the working assumptions. We should recommend a constitutional amendment, but we will have to continue to work until the people decide either to amend the Constitution or otherwise.

Reference has been made to the role of the committee. I agree with the point made by Deputy McGrath. It is really down to us and the work we do in the coming four weeks to ensure the committee has teeth and does not have a big bang. We need to get away from the idea that the budget is in the middle of October. The budget is taking place as we speak. The Government is going to miss its fiscal targets this year with regard to the structural improvement, yet there is no talk about it. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council will come out with a report next week and it will probably hit the media, but there is no scrutiny of the fact that the targets are going to be missed this year. This committee will have to look at the question in detail. Otherwise, there is no point because the Commission could reject our budget and so on.

Several models have been laid down. I have before me model 2, model 3 and model 4. These are the models the committee is examining. Under model 2, a single budget committee co-ordinates a process in which the sectoral committees make recommendations to the budget committee. Then, the budget committee reviews and accepts or rejects each such recommendation and formally considers all budgetary matters.

My interpretation of this is that the budgetary committee would hear from all the different sectoral committees. They would make their pitches to the budgetary committee which would say what it likes and present recommendations to the Government on the shape budget 2017 should take. It is then up to Government to accept or reject that but the Parliament’s input is significant, if we give it the teeth. All the issues Deputy Burton raised about access to information and so on are key to informing the committee. We also need to ensure the committee has adequate resources to carry out that type of work. If it is to have those powers and if that is what we expect of it, that is much more than we have done at sectoral committee level until now.