Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not agreed. First, this is an extraordinary proposition that only arrived late yesterday evening, without any discussion with the Whips and without agreement. We received a briefing note about this last evening. It states that the 2013 Revised Estimates for the public service contain a fuller, more detailed breakdown of spending by each Department and Vote than the spending totals announced in the Estimates for 2013 published in the expenditure report on 5 December 2012. The note goes on to say that the Revised Estimates largely follow the budget day allocations, which were quite regressive, with the pay deal recommendations by the Labour Relations Commission having been programmed into departmental Estimates. The note continues that they also allow for a number of technical adjustments and so forth.

What we are being asked to do this morning, despite the Taoiseach admitting just a few minutes ago that he planned to reflect and do no more than that, is to approve these Estimates and send them to the committee without anybody having an idea of how the savings will be realised.

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