Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Howlin is pirouetting over the poor.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to legislate on the issue of Cabinet confidentiality and he says he will not act on that. It also commits to opening the budget process to the full glare of public scrutiny in a way that restores confidence. The programme for Government also says the Government is too centralised and unaccountable and that a real shift in power from the State to citizens is required.

Have all those pledges been torn up?

The Economic Management Council put together the budget. Four men put together an anti-woman, anti-family, anti-children budget. There is less scrutiny of all of these decisions in this Chamber, where we are supposed to debate them, than is the case in other parliaments. We only hear about them through the media, accurately or otherwise, or from the Bundestag. We do not hear about them in here in the way we should. There is no proper scrutiny because we are not given the information to do the job we were sent here to do.

To be clear about this, is the Taoiseach saying he is not moving on the commitment in the programme for Government to legislate on Cabinet confidentiality? Is he going to move on the commitment to shift power from the State to citizens? Will he move on the commitment to making the Dáil more open to public scrutiny, and if so, when? What status has any pending legislation?

What steps does the Taoiseach intend to take around the budget? Once again today, budget measures will be rushed through. How will the budget process be opened up to public scrutiny, particularly here in Dáil Éireann?

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