Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, may find it interesting that when the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, released the Revised Estimates for 2012 he made several points that were positive. For example, he stated:

Today my Department is publishing an unprecedented amount of information about what exactly Departments have achieved, and what they are aiming to achieve, with the public funds that are granted to them by the Dáil. It is not enough to know how much Departments are looking to spend. We need to know, and the public need to know, what exactly is being delivered.

The Minister was on the button in that.

On this morning's Order of Business I raised my concern that contrary to normal practice and the briefing note given to the Whips, this issue, be it technical or whatever way it is defined, was to be submitted to the finance committee but that did not happen. Will the Minister explain why this did not happen?

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