Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not say that. With respect, I said "at this point". The Minister may try to deflect from what we are supposed to do, but let me explain what it says on the tin: "budgetary scrutiny committee". We must scrutinise not only the policy decisions of Government but also, crucially, the expenditure and the tax areas. The Minister accepts that. Therefore, we would be in dereliction of our duty if we did not challenge the Minister if he came before the committee and said a couple of weeks after the budget had been passed, "I am spending another €120 million." A couple of weeks earlier it was €50 million. In a couple of weeks' time we anticipate €58 million for the continuation of suspension of water charges.

Add it all up and it is nearly €250 million. It is 25% more than the net fiscal space that was there at the time of the budget. If we did not ask the questions as to how this money is supposed to be found, then we would not be doing our duty. Let us reverse roles for a minute. If I stood up in the Dáil, asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to spend €120 million on a project that I felt to be worthy and said it should be found from efficiencies somewhere, the Minister would laugh me out of it, and rightly so. I have a question to put to the Minister and ask him not to deflect from it because the issue here is really important and we could deal with that if we had time. The question I have relates to the committee and its integrity because I have no intention of being a member of a committee which is just pushing paper and is not being fed the information from Departments. We made that clear at a very early stage. The question is, will the Minister provide this information? I am sure the Department has provided some type of paper to the Minister that suggests where €120 million of savings can be achieved over the next number of months.