Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to respond briefly to what the Minister has said. To get back to the key point, the Minister said that in terms of individual spending proposals there will be space for the Opposition to present alternative proposals. However, what I am saying is that during the period when the issues are being debated between line Departments and Ministers and the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform the process should be more open. In other words, the individual Ministers or Departments who have proposals should be discussing them in sectoral committees in the summer period. Ultimately, that will empower Ministers and empower the process in terms of teasing things out and widening the responsibility because if one is going to spend more in one area, one may have to cut back in another. If it is just a process whereby the Opposition contributes proposals but does not get a chance to debate the Departments' proposals then we are not doing what the OECD suggested, namely engaging with the Departments in an active way. That cannot just be done in September or October. It must be done in the June-July period, as well as the national economic dialogue and all of the other elements to which the Minister referred.