Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I acknowledge what the Deputy has said. In my opening remarks I said there are so many allowances that it is difficult to know what they are. The review is ongoing. The Minister knew that this issue would arise and he has said that when the review is completed and presented to the Government he will have no difficulty in publishing it at that stage. The Deputy read an exhaustive list of allowances but it is only a fraction of those available. I agree with him that there are allowances which are quite moderate and that people richly deserve. They probably deserve higher allowances but in the current circumstances that will not happen in the near future. On the other hand, there are allowances in place that are a hangover from practices that occurred a long time ago and the notion that power would be removed from the Minister to make decisions on those allowances, which was the subject of the previous amendment, seems ludicrous. I agree with the Deputy's main point. I hope he will not take any offence at what I said earlier - I would not mean that to be the case.

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