Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

The reality is that we have experience of how other discretionary funds have been used. We see it happening on a regular basis with Cabinet colleagues in the way their spending programmes are miraculously, without the rule of thumb, weighted towards their constituencies as if the national interest was served by such programmes. The Minister should know that the ethos of the Irish political system is such that there is an expectation that Ministers will act in that way. I am not levelling it as a charge; I am saying the nature of political practice and the weight of public expectation mean this is how the issue of public expenditure is dealt with. If the Minister wanted to make things better, he would have brought forward a better Bill.

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