Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity of speaking on the motion, a Revised Estimate for the CSO for €80 million for the current year. We support the Revised Estimate and it is necessary that this is done. I am keen to ensure there are no difficulties with the matter. The reason the Revised Estimate is so large this year is because the census was held on 10 April. Excellent work was carried out by the 5,300 enumerators and all the supervisory and control staff.

I am pleased that the Minister of State has indicated that the preliminary returns will be announced by the end of this month. Based on previous Supreme Court judgments this will immediately commence the process of a review of constituency boundaries to take account of the changing populations. At that stage I expect the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, will set up a new Constituency Commission and will probably call on it to set the number of new Deputies in the order of 150 after the next election. That is approximately where he is going on the issue. This is only one side product of the Revised Estimates and the census process.

The Deputy's statement was informative in a way and it gives us a good brief on the CSO but it does not deal with the real issue of why we are here today. The question must be asked why we are passing this single Revised Estimate today. The reason must be seen in the context of the fact that the Revised Estimates for Public Services 2011 was published six months ago. Since the general election the new Government has made no effort whatever to bring the Estimates before the Dáil or to have them passed by the Dáil. Now, we are midway through the month of June, almost half way through the year. The Government has shown contempt for the new Dáil by not bringing any of the Estimates for any Department before the House to date.

There has been talk of Dáil reform. The Government's idea of Dáil reform is to diminish the role of the Dáil, the role of Members, including the Government backbenchers, and the Opposition. The announcement today by the Government of the setting up of new committees is unsatisfactory. For the first time I imagine no member of the Opposition will be allowed to chair a direct line Department committee. That is unprecedented. Members of the Opposition will be given the Chairs outside of direct line Ministries, whether it is the traditional PAC role or Committee on Members' Interests role or something like that.

The Book of Estimates as passed in the budget last year was for €57 billion of expenditure this year. Approximately €25 billion - a conservative reckoning - of that €57 billion has already been spent this year by the various Departments without any approval by this Chamber. Deputy Mathews will surely agree that the concept of a business going halfway through its financial year before approving its budget for the year is so absurd as to be incomprehensible. There has been no discussion with the Whips as to the timetabling of the Estimates, but I have no doubt guillotines will be used before the summer recess to ensure they are completed.

The €80 million allocation for the CSO out of a total Estimate for the entire year for all Departments of €57 billion equates to some €1 in every €700 that will be spent by the Government this year. Why is Dáil approval being sought today for this one Vote? It is indicative of the shambles into which the Government has led itself.

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