Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are not arguing with that. As the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, we have oversight over the process. The Taoiseach announced in the Sunday Independent- and I deliberately make the difference between the Taoiseach and the Government - the expenditure of €170 million. The Minister cannot tell us today where that money is coming from. I wanted to know when a Cabinet decision was taken to spend that money. I asked that question in the context of the Minister for Social Protection saying on Monday that no Cabinet decision had been taken specifically in respect of the allocation of €170 million.

The Minister has form in this area. He presented a budget last October and three weeks later €50 million was found out of nowhere to allocate to a Garda issue. A number of months later another sum of money was found to bring forward certain provisions of the Lansdowne Road agreement. We are here as the Committee on Budgetary Oversight and are beginning the process of budget 2018. The Minister, however, will unravel it depending on who goes on strike or on what rush of blood goes to the Taoiseach's head when next speaking to a journalist. We need to know whether the budgetary process is robust enough to withstand the various pressures on it in the context of Brexit, capital underspend, and a growing economy and equally in the political context of making expenditure decisions on the hoof. It is our job, as the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, to see where the money is going and to assess the process. Other arguments are for other committees and have been had.