Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Both the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance have said on several occasions over the past couple of weeks that every area of public expenditure is now open to consideration and reconsideration, given the financial state the country is in. Deputies Healy-Rae and Lowry have both been claiming publicly that they have an arrangement with the Government which commits the Government to expenditure over and above what would normally be the case. Deputy Healy-Rae, for example, was quoted in a newspaper as recently as last Friday stating that he expected the Government to provide several things for him in return for his continued support, including a road by-pass and a hospital. He went on to state, presumably in the context of the forthcoming budget, that his son would be meeting the Minister for Finance shortly, along with Deputy Lowry.

There has been much talk about providing us all with information and everybody looking at the various options for what might be done with public expenditure and so on. We need to establish the following. First, is there an arrangement with the two Deputies for expenditure of a special nature? Second, is Deputy Healy-Rae's son to meet the Minister for Finance to discuss, presumably, matters which might be contained in the budget and Estimates? Third, is it true that there are meetings between the Minister for Finance and Deputy Lowry in respect of these matters?

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