Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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How do the metrics that have been chosen line up with the strategic plans of the Department? On first reading, it seems that some of the metrics are very basic. We spend a great deal of time in the Chamber discussing the health and justice and equality budgets in particular. The Government spends a great deal of time reacting to all kinds of crisis in those two budget areas. When one looks at the metrics in health and in justice and equality, the information we need is simply not there. Let me give some examples, people waiting for a longer time than 52 weeks for first access to acute hospital care. That number is growing dramatically. A time series would have been helpful on that to give us the real information to decide on how much money we need to get those disgraceful figures into something we could stand over as politicians. In respect of justice and equality, I have no idea of what is happening in the Garda Síochána on the detection of crime. We have burglaries, although it is a terrible crime but they are probably lower down the scale than other much more serious crime and the actual jobs that An Garda Síochána does. The information seems to be very basic and does not seem to be that informative or give us any kind of fundamental grounds on which we can calculate what expenditure should be in the future. The database seems primitive and bears little relationship to what would be the strategic plans of the Department.