Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 6 October 2020
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised)
Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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There are two imponderables I can see that can affect budgetary issues. The first is Brexit and the other is the virus. Is the Minister of State satisfied, insofar as he can achieve satisfaction, that the Department has provided for all the unquantifiables? A former US Secretary of Defense mentioned "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns". This is somewhat similar but there are unquantifiables and we will not know how to deal with them until we get there. Brexit has been raised by the Chairman and others with respect to market access. I strongly urge that whatever happens, there would be provision made for direct access to Europe from Cork, Rosslare or elsewhere so we can get as far into the centre of the market as is possible, with less dependency on the whims of our next-door neighbour. They will have other pressing matters that may well have an impact on us.
My apologies for being late but there were three other meetings.