Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The report has been submitted to the Government. It forms part of the considerations of the budgetary process. This process is confidential until the Government makes its ultimate decisions. The outcome of our deliberations will become clear when the budget is announced and the Estimates process is complete. The deliberations are ongoing and there are bilateral discussions taking place as the Estimates process takes shape. Progress is being made in this regard. As with any other Government, including those supported in the past by Deputy Gilmore, the budgetary process remains part of the deliberative process until final decisions are taken.

In a previous reply, I was simply making the point that the assumption the Deputy seemed to be making in his first supplementary question was that all the recommendations of the McCarthy report, which advocate cuts of €5.4 billion, are about to be implemented. That was an exercise conducted on behalf of the Minister for Finance and his Department by the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes and its report is for consideration by the Government in the context of bilateral discussions taking place between the Department of Finance and other line Departments as we seek to identify the necessary expenditure savings that will be made. Those discussions are ongoing and are taking place in the context of the budgetary and Estimates process. How we intend to proceed will become very clear. When the report came to Government, Ministers were invited to comment on it and to suggest savings either in line with the recommendations or by an alternative means.

The bottom line is that an adjustment of €4 billion will have to be made in the context of the budget, primarily on the expenditure side, as the Minister has indicated. The preparation of the budget is an ongoing process. The McCarthy report is helpful in the discussions that are taking place. The ultimate decision has to be taken on the recommendations, on whether they are modified, adapted, changed or not to be proceeded with. That is a matter for political decision by Government when the process is complete, which will be in the coming weeks.

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