Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

We learned from the programme for Government that the Government proposes to introduce a mini-budget in June. Yesterday, under questioning from my party, the Minister for Finance indicated he will introduce counterbalancing, revenue raising measures which will have to generate additional revenue of €1.5 billion by 2013. While the mini-budget has been dressed up as a jobs fund, it will include austerity measures to the tune of €1.5 billion. When will a finance Bill giving effect to these measures be published?

An independent report was done on the recommendations made by the Department of Finance to the previous Government. Will opinions given by the Department be made public, as recommended by the report? If the Department's views and analyses had been made public during previous Administrations, we may not be in the mess we are in today. Will the Department's views on the measures in the forthcoming mini-budget aimed at raising revenue of €1.5 billion by 2013 be made available to Opposition parties?

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