Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his presentation. I expect he probably had anticipated the backlash he is receiving from Deputies here today. There is no criticism as such in giving a pay increase to a public sector worker and nobody is disagreeing with that aspect of it. We, however, have a job to do. If we go back as far as the budgetary process when we scrutinised Government proposals and put forward our own proposals, certainly all the Opposition parties, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the others, put forward budget proposals on the basis of figures provided to us on the assumption that they were correct figures and that they were all the figures that were available. Moments before the budget was announced the Minister, Deputy Donohoe managed to find €100 million. At the time it was highlighted to him that Deputies were very unhappy with how that was done and we felt it undermined the budgetary process at that point. Today the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has found another €120 million and not so long ago he managed to find €150 million for An Garda Síochána. Nobody is begrudging money going to public servants but the job we have to do as Opposition Deputies on the Committee on Budgetary Oversight is to put forward realistic alternative budget proposals to the public and to the Minister. Because we are not operating on the same figures with which the Minister appears to be operating, it makes our job impossible and makes a mockery of the process. We must take the Minister at face value when he says that he has found this €120 million from savings and efficiencies - which is the term I believe the Minister has used. As Deputy Cullinane has pointed out we have nothing before us to show where those efficiencies were made and we have nothing before us to tell the committee or the Dáil when the Minister found out about these efficiencies. When did the Minister become aware that he was going to have an extra €120 million to play with? On average it is working out at around €4,000 annually to members of the Garda - and again nobody is begrudging that - I understand why it was done. I appreciate the Minister cannot comment much on this aspect but clearly the difficulties facing An Garda Síochána, the onslaught and threat of an unprecedented all-out strike, the pressure it brought to public sector pay, the whole discourse around that process and all the upset around that HR difficulty have led to increased pressure on the Minister to find money elsewhere for other sectors of the public service. The Minister is telling us that he found this funding through efficiencies but it appears as though he found the money because he had no other choice. He tells us that it will not affect other services but there is nothing before the Deputies to assure the committee that this is not going to happen. The Minister speaks about the money going into the health services, for example, and that there has never been more money spent per capitain our health service. However, the numbers of people on trolleys at Mayo University Hospital this year reached an all-time high - the highest in ten years. If there is more money per capitagoing into the health service, where is it going? Clearly it is not being spent on the patient and is not improving the level of service provided to our citizens. I ask the Minister to take on board the issue of the undermining of the committee's work in the handling of this additional money being found and the lack of information coming forward to this committee to allow it to do its work. I take the Minister at face value when he says he wants to be accountable to this committee and that he is not looking to be disrespectful in any way but he can appreciate, from our perspective, why there might be anger on this side as to the way things have been handled.

Perhaps the Minister could comment on a criticism the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, has laid at the Minister's door on the trend for using temporary or volatile corporate tax receipts to pay for permanent services. What are the Minister's views on this and what steps is he taking to reduce the risks associated with that?

My final point is on the pre-budget work done by this committee. We heard presentations from various stakeholders such as the ESRI, IFAC and many others. At that point in time - going on the original figures the Minister told us were available in the fiscal space - we were being told by every stakeholder that it was on the upper limits of prudent spending for this State for 2017 and that we were hitting the upper reaches. Considering that we now have €120 million, another €50 million and then €100 million at budget time, is the Minister concerned that he may have exceeded prudent spending for this year, thereby putting us at risk in our economic performance?