Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We know that it will be continually revised. The exception taken by this committee, which monitors these issues, is to the fact that it was revised within a week and jumped 20%. That was not the first time it happened. It happened in the same way the previous year. We will tease that out.

Could Mr. Watt tell the committee where we found the €120 million for the pay deal, the €50 million for the gardaí and the €59 million that will be required for the continued suspension of water charges to the end of the year, that is almost €230 million? Will that money be found within the allocated resources because the Estimates are out, it is additional money that was not there at the time or additional commitments that were not factored into the budget.

We were told not to worry about it at the time, which is a complete and utter insult. I thought the Minister's performance before this committee really devalued this committee. I have lost a lot of faith in the committee if the Minister is going to treat it like that when a deal is struck, and I have no problem with the deal, by telling the budget scrutiny committee not to worry, we will find that. That is ridiculous and it would not be tolerated in any other jurisdiction and should not be tolerated here. There are commitments which have to be found from current resources. Can Mr. Watt enlighten the committee about where that money is coming from out of this year's allocated resources?