Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Three significant events for the economy will happen over the course of the summer as preparations are under way for the budget. These are NAMA, the report of an bord snip nua and the report of the Commission on Taxation. The Minister suggested he wants participation by parties in the House in this process. I do not know how the Minister envisages a genuine debate on the content of both reports unless the information is published.

As the Minister knows, the bord snip nua report is supposed to suggest a range of retrenchments; for example, I understand that some members of the board are not overly impressed with Seanad Éireann and have suggested that there might be retrenchment there and other members have suggested that in these straitened times certain Departments do not contribute as much as they otherwise might. Is there an intention to publish the information so that a genuine debate can take place?

As I understand it, the bord snip nua report involves senior public servants in each Department offering up areas of potential retrenchment and cutback; that is how it has been described by the Chairman. It copies the previous bord snip. What does that mean? Will the Minister confirm that this means, as has been suggested, that every item of expenditure in each Department, capital and current, has been broadly examined by the board which has made observations on where savings and efficiencies might be made. Will the Minister confirm that this could account for approximately 400 items of public expenditure throughout all Departments and agencies?

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