Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On the review referred to in the first sentence, instead of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform trying to convene the various interested parties, the approach that appears to have been adopted looked at individual organisations, units of Government or Departments in isolation. I think that was a test that almost predetermined the outcome. We saw that the Central Statistics Office, CSO, relied on the data sources and collection that Benefacts had done, whereas another State body would never use Benefacts. It was important to look at this collectively rather than individually and that is not what happened. It is useful to see that as a process and understand that this can be a deficiency if something like this happens again. At this stage, we know there is another proposal from the Department of Rural and Community Development. We should request the Department's business case for that and also the proposal for the scope of Pobal. We could usefully ask the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for a copy of the two reports done by Benefacts. It compiled research on behalf of the Department on people working in the non-profit sector regarding pay and pensions. It would be useful to see those. Obviously, in a modern public service, information is important for making good decisions. In fact, if I remember rightly, the point that good quality information delivers or assists with good governance was made in the Indecon report. That is the point I have been trying to make throughout our discussions on this issue. I ask that the committee make those two requests.