Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The Minister implied that although the group is finalising its proposals at the end, the Minister is receiving them as they are done, Department by Department. To what form of evaluation will these reports be subjected? Does he regard them as part of the deliberative process of the budget and, therefore, not available to the House? Can he make them available to the House so there can be a debate on the potential for savings in the management of key Departments? Finding efficiencies and savings is not the unique interest of Government. It would be useful if the Oireachtas committees in each of these areas had access to these reports earlier rather than later. I would be interested to hear the Minister's view on that.

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