Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said the ceilings are in place on an administrative basis and will be put on a statutory footing, and that it will be a three year framework. Does that mean, in practice, that if the Department of Health gets €45 billion, for example, over three years, it can spend what it wishes in the first two and it is €10 billion short in the third year but there will be a new Government that will look at it again? What brake is there on a Department that is overspending? I realise we have to accept that with demand-led Departments but, aside from that, is there such a mechanism in place? It must be in place for the end of January, February, March and so forth, not in July and September. It is always in the summer, half way through the year, when it is too difficult to do anything in terms of achieving cutbacks. This has happened every year but I see no sign of any improvement. The troika sought to meet the two Departments it had listed the last time it was here for a good reason. We should use the troika against those Departments. This possibly relates to what the HSE said at the Committee of Public Accounts, which is that it has a different accounting system. It might not be possible to get good information together in different Departments and perhaps legislation proposed here on budget day in respect of savings does not always get implemented. There should be firmer action on this.

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