Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for coming, but my questions are not for him or for the Minister for Finance. I am interested in the views of their officials, Mr. Beausang, Ms Swaine, Mr. Palmer and Mr. McCarthy. I am not going to ask them to identify any specific Ministers, but it would be useful for this committee to know from their very substantial cumulative experience if they can recall any case in which a Minister returned to the Department and said, "My God, I have just been at such-and-such a committee, and we are getting it wrong on policy X. We need to do Y, as proposed at that committee." Again, without giving me a specific example or identifying any Minister, could they confidently say that such a scenario has occurred, has never occurred, or regularly occurs? That would be of interest to this committee.

I will be very surprised if the officials answer my second question but I will ask it anyway. Do they see the establishment of the committee that will follow this arrangement committee as an additional layer of superficial window dressing in what is already an extremely difficult process for them in their deliberations with Ministers in Government, or do they genuinely feel that it will add value to the process?