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

I ask the Minister to reconsider his position on carrying out a cost-benefit analysis. I have never heard of another case of a company or body that was about to incur costs arising from a major redundancy programme refusing to consider carrying out a cost-benefit analysis. Every company and organisation that lays off staff estimates what will be the cost of the redundancy programme versus the projected savings. The Minister has stated one can only carry out such cost-benefit analyses for road building and other capital projects. I have never heard anyone else make a similar statement. I ask him to do the public service a favour by asking the person who wrote his reply to learn something about economics.

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