Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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I have to say I find the Minister’s attitude extraordinary. This is really important stuff. The Minister talks about a new budgetary process. All I am asking for is comfort that next year we will have sufficient time to look at the SPU. Of course, I have been looking at the other documents for the past 12 months. As the Minister will appreciate, what is important for us to understand is the differences between the various documents so we know what policy changes are being made. I find it extraordinary that the Minister does not believe this committee and the Oireachtas should have sufficient time to debate this before he sends it to the Commission. By the way, he is not even giving us time to debate it. He is showing it to us in fact. This entire committee could say the SPU is terrible but it will be sent to the Commission anyway. There is no meaningful input from the committee because the Minister will not change a single sentence. There is plenty of detail I want to get into but if we do not get the process right, we will not get the time to do the review. I am genuinely surprised at the Minister’s response.