John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. The agenda states that the committee is to consider the 26 Revised Estimates. I wish to make all those present aware of the following: no decisions are taken by the committee in relation to its consideration of the Estimates; the committee is only empowered to consider the Estimates and cannot alter, amend or vote on them; the committee must send a message to the Dáil when it has completed its consideration of the Estimates and it cannot decide not to do so; under Standing Order 90, that message must be to the effect that the select committee has completed its consideration of an Estimate referred to it by the Dáil; there is no provision for the expression of opinion by the committee on the Estimates in its message; and, as the standing order prescribes the nature of the message to be sent, the content is not a matter for decision by the committee.

I consider that puts us in the position of being glove puppets for the whole process in this House. The standing order reduces this debate to a farce because we cannot send any messages or do anything and I want to put on record my disappointment, which is nothing to do with the Minister of State, with this arrangement and the fact that the public sees the Dáil referring the Estimates to committee. It will hear the message going back from this committee, which is already set down and it believes we will forensically examine the Estimate and the public should know that is not the case. I am not prepared to entertain this type of arrangement on an ongoing basis. I will continue to make public statements as the Chairman or raise the matter in the Dáil to ensure that committees are appropriately empowered to do what is necessary. Let it be known, however, that it is a complete farce that the committees are appointed and their hands are tied.

In respect of the joint committee, I understand that the Members from the Seanad have not yet been appointed and that there is some haggling going on about how they are to be appointed. That is holding up the work of this committee. That has to be stated and if we are allowed to send a message, perhaps one should be sent to the Seanad to please get its act together and give us the members of the committee so that we can continue our work.

We should be receiving our information in a timely fashion from the various Departments that come before us. That did not happen today. I know there has been a particular political process that delayed matters and the formation of committees. We are considering the Estimates for this year in June. Every Department would know exactly what we are going to debate here so the information should come to us long before the day prior to a meeting. I ask the Minister of State to bring this to the attention of those who provide the committee with information and to indicate that what happened in this instance will not be acceptable in the future. We want information to be supplied in a timely fashion in order to give members the opportunity to read into the brief and understand the figures concerned. That being the background to the meeting, I open it to members if they wish to raise questions on the Estimates.