Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

——can conduct their affairs in such a way that there is some alignment between what is happening at Executive level and what is happening at parliamentary committee level. That may not be possible in practical terms but there is a need, given the number of committees, to see how they can work at some level of alignment with what the Government is trying to do.

This will better allow the committee to hold the Executive to account in terms of the implementation of the programme for Government, its spending plans and so on. From next year, the budgetary reforms I have introduced will enhance accountability. By allowing for scrutiny of outputs as well as inputs, they will allow committees to question Ministers on what they expect to get for the moneys they propose to spend and to oblige them to return at the end of the year and set out whether those objectives were achieved. This process will help avoid the dialogue of the deaf that sometimes characterises the interaction between the Executive and parliamentary committees in a way that is helpful to neither. I enjoy debate and the intellectual rigour of meeting people such as Deputy Higgins across the plinth of parliamentary committees. We may disagree on many occasions but it is always interesting.

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