Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am afraid I have to disagree with my colleagues on this particular area. The Minister of Finance has a duty and a job that is strictly laid down in legislation. We can speculate all we like about the precise amount we have available to us at any given time. That may change from year to year and that has always been the case. Yet, it is the responsibility of the Minister to deal with the situation that emerges before him or her as the case may be. There is no changing that and there can be no changing that. It is laid down in law and the Constitution. That is our job and the job of the Minister. It applies to all Departments, so that no single Department can go off on a foray and decide there is some fat on the bone here and we should take it when the time is ripe and so on. That does not work. We cannot have that. It certainly will not work within the European institutions, which are always on the lookout for measures of that nature taking place in individual countries. That happened during the infamous financial crash when some countries blamed us as a nation for not taking steps they said were visible to us. They were right and that is the problem. We needed to apologise literally and metaphorically at that time. It all comes down to the person or people with responsibility. It may be a Minister or a number of Ministers but or one way or another, the Minister or Ministers will have to make a decision that stands up alongside other decisions that are being taken at the time. There are also the prevailing factors, such as GNP, GNI* or whatever the case may be. At all times there has to be a reference on which the Minister can rely. If they cannot rely precisely on a specific amount - and that would have to change - they would then have the reference to fall back on a percentage of whatever that may be. The Minister is right that this is the correct way to proceed. We can speculate forever about easier, better and less challenging ways to proceed, but I stand by what the Minister is doing.