Dáil debates

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

2:00 pm

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I ask the Minister to take up the issue of the Croke Park agreement in subsequent meetings. I am being kind when I described the format and content of the original annual report as unsatisfactory. We let it go but only two sentences mentioned the saving of €300 million. At the meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, we told Mr. Fitzpatrick that we want to see savings broken down by Department. We want to see the detail because it is not good enough in the public interest to give an overall figure. Perhaps the Minister can give us the method by which he will assess the report. It is possible that the report will be a good one. However, can the Minister envisage a situation where he says it is unsatisfactory if it is so?

Many of the savings have nothing to do with the Croke Park agreement. The reduction in public service numbers was changed by the incoming Government, of which Deputy Howlin is a member, when it took office last year. I would say the savings were as a result of a Government decision rather than as a result of the implementation of the Croke Park agreement. Therefore, I ask the Minister to explain which savings come under the Croke Park deal and which savings were achieved in the public service outside of the Croke Park deal. Somehow or other, these are always aggregated as being part of the Croke Park deal. Will the Minister tell us which category of savings did not come under the deal?

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