Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 February 2022
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source
I examine each Bill on its own merits. In the weeks ahead, for example, I will be going through a detailed legislative process with Deputy Farrell and others on the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021. I am open to amending that Bill. I am open to accepting Opposition amendments. I am not precious about these things at all. I am very pragmatic. If I believe a Bill moves things on in a positive way, I will embrace it.
We did, however, examine the Bill to which the Deputy referred and it does not do what it sets out to do; let us just say that much. It would require an enormous volume of work and that is work we are doing anyway in the context of our own Bill. I felt it was a much more efficient and better use of our resources to work on the Government Bill. If there are amendments, as I said, I will certainly consider them on their merits, wherever they come from.
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