Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a matter for individual committees to decide, within their areas of responsibility, how they will manage their business, the discussions they will have and who they will call before them. I do not have a view because I should not have a view. It is a matter for the committees and I do not want to influence their work in any way. Parliamentary work should be a matter for Parliament.

It is not true to say that Parliament does not have a role in budgetary formation. It has an absolute role. No budget or finance Bill passes without a majority vote of the Dáil.

No social welfare Bill passes without a majority vote of the Dáil so there is absolute control by the Dáil over the budgetary actions of Government. What is being argued about is whether, as well as that absolute control, the Dáil should have an input in the formation of budgetary policy - a hands-on executive role - rather than an advisory role or a scrutiny role. That is fair enough but every democracy needs a parliament and every democracy also needs an executive to do the work on a full-time basis and bring forward proposals. As we attempt to change the balance, I would not favour taking away the functions of the Executive and giving them to a committee of Parliament because we might arrive at a situation where we would have no budget. I know of no country in the world that is governed simply by a parliamentary committee process. There is always an executive and there must be something in the powers of the executive.

I was asked a number of questions about costings. I agree there should be a budgetary committee that would be independent of the Departments and of the Government and responsible to the Dáil. Deputy Pearse Doherty was probably the first person to mention that in recent years and I agreed with him very quickly that it would be a good reform and I am fully supportive of that. I do not indicate that I would support constitutional change. The Constitution has been operating for a long time. Such matters were very carefully considered and a certain role was given to the Executive and to the Parliament. If we were to try to rebalance the situation, which is essentially what we are talking about, we should try to do so in a way that makes the system more effective and accountable, but I do not think we should make radical change without due consideration. This is a scoping committee and it is up to it to do the consideration and to make any proposals it wants about how the respective duties should be rebalanced. That is what the committee is about. At the end of the day my view will not count. It is the view of the Dáil that will count. I would not rush into a referendum.