Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I was called away some of the questions I am about to raise may have been asked. Ms Emily Logan is coming towards the end of establishing an office that is different from and has far more powers and independence than some people may have wanted it to have. One of our tasks is to look at the creation of an independent parliamentary budgetary office. If that office is established and its head lifts the telephone to Ms Emily Logan what advice would she give in terms of what she and her colleagues have learned about establishing a powerful body that has the right to challenge and how it would get around the various challenges presented to it? Dr. Mary Murphy made the point that the commission will not be the proofer; that is the capacity within Departments. Mr. Laurence Bond touched on it in terms of the Scottish model. Will a Department official be sufficiently empowered to call out their line manager, principal officer or Secretary General if they consider that not enough quality proofing is taking place in the budget presentation? Mr. Laurence Bond mentioned that the Scottish model has systems and tools in place partly at departmental level and partly co-ordinated at a central level. Is there some type of clearing house where, if somebody within a Department holds the view that an issue has not been addressed within the Department, he or she can send it to him? If an agency that feeds into the Department considers that the budget submission is failing that test is there a clearing house mechanism? If the commission is not going to be the proofer, would it be the "caller outer"? If a budget fails the test of equality is the commission the organisation that will call it out?