Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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During the short time I have been a Deputy, I have become used to hearing the Opposition Members be critical with regard to the lack of time they are given to consider matters and to hold Ministers to account. They also complain about the power of the Executive. The very function of this meeting is to provide all Deputies with an opportunity to hold the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to account and to scrutinise his spending plans. The fact that the Opposition comprises one party which failed to engage in scrutiny when it was in government - if it had done so, we might not be in the mess in which we find ourselves - and others which prefer to scrutinise matters on the national airwaves rather than in the Parliament is really an indictment of the Opposition rather than of the process.

It is worth noting that what has been announced by the Government in respect of the Croke Park II process shows that concrete progress has been made in a matter of days. For the Opposition to try to derail a process which brings certainty to the public finances is both scurrilous and grandstanding in nature but, I suppose, not atypical.