Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

How can the Government justify that and ask us to nod through, without debate, the returning of the Estimates to the House? Even with a 9% increase in spending this year, which it is making, the Government cannot deliver the spending for people who are vulnerable. What will it do later in the year with an increase in spending of, maybe, only 4% or 5%? We need a serious debate and reform of the Estimates procedure. The Minister for Finance, who is absent today, is refusing to allow any reform in the Estimates procedure so there will be serious scrutiny of choices, the way money is spent and the performance being delivered. That is being refused to the House. My party does not accept that the Estimates for 2008 should be nodded through without debate.

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