Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform
Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - Shared Services (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
1:00 pm
Deputy Steven S. Donnelly:
I support the views expressed. I understand that the figures to come before us represent approximately €300 million in savings baked into them according to the proposed and now defeated Croke Park II proposal. Clearly that has not been agreed by public sector workers. I would be willing to discuss Estimates which had them taken out of them and would be very much willing to engage in a discussion with the Minister about where that additional saving could be found. However, we know that the Estimates to come before the committee, if they have Croke Park II baked into them, are incorrect. Given that the public sector workers voted against Croke Park II, it would be wrong for us to engage with these numbers, which have the Croke Park II proposal baked into them. I also suggest that we cease this session and discuss how the committee can do some very important work on the Estimates as we see them for this year and not based on a rejected proposal.