Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We know that the State will stand behind those pensions. On chapter 3, I ask Mr. Watt to refer to table 3.7. The Budget Statement is announced before 15 October every year in accordance with EU rules but it takes six months for the Estimates to be dealt with. The Estimates are considered by the relevant committees in March or close thereto and voted upon by the Dáil in April. As Accounting Officer and Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, I wish to state that that is no way to do business. Most draft Estimates for next year have been published. Six months are being lost. The budget used to be in December but was brought forward to October under EU guidelines. That gave the Oireachtas the opportunity to pass the Estimates for 2019 before the end of 2018. I do not know of any organisation worth its salt that approves its budget four or five months into the year. Such a company would go bust. No business should be run in that way. The fact that this concerns Departments is not a reason to say the State guarantees everything and it does not matter anyway. It is bad practice. As budget day has been brought forward by two months, the approval of the Estimates should be brought forward by at least the same period. At one stage, Estimates were coming through just before the summer recess. During committee discussion of an Estimate, members were told that two thirds of the allocation had been spent. Four twelfths of the Estimates will have been spent by April in any event. Mr. Watt, as the Accounting Officer for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which oversees this side of the budgetary process, should be making an effort to get those Estimates through the Oireachtas by Christmas. That would be the correct time for it to be done. It would be better to have them completed in January than maintain the current situation but it would still be too late. It should be done by Christmas.