Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

There are 141 amendments which need critical examination before 11 p.m. this evening, 80 of which have been submitted in the name of the Minister for Finance. As Deputy Bruton has stated, we have been given no background information about these new amendments, many of which were not referred to on Committee Stage and many of which will not be discussed tonight on Report Stage.

In his 2004 budget speech the Minister spoke about reforming the Estimates process and the process connected with the Finance Bill, but there has been no such reform. Part of the information the Opposition spokespersons need is who has been in contact with the Minister between Second and Committee Stages and between Committee and Report Stages and who has helped influence the amendments the Minister is seeking to make to the Bill. We are the people who are supposed to critically examine this Bill, table amendments and have those amendments considered in a serious manner. The Minister is doing us a disservice. He is paying more attention to people outside the House who are influencing the contents of this Bill and on those grounds I object to the proposal.

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