Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has told us that the committee was established. We knew that. She has also told us what the group was supposed to do and what its terms of reference were. We knew that also. We need to make the best use of the limited time we have available. When exactly did the Minister receive this report? Why has it not been published to date? Parts of it have been selectively leaked and I have read about it in the newspapers. Given that the taxpayer paid for the report, why should it remain in the possession of the Minister for an indeterminate length of time after it has been produced? The rest of us should have access to it to see what it states. If the recommendations made in the report are implemented, they will have a profound effect on hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country. When exactly will the report be published? I remind the Minister that the question I tabled to her referred to the Government's commitment to maintain core social welfare rates. Does that commitment still stand, even within the parameters of the narrowest possible definition given to the term "core social welfare rates"? In the light of the child benefit cuts made in last month's budget, the Minister announced the creation of 6,000 after-school places for primary schoolchildren.

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