Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept the assertions of Deputies Martin, McDonald and Boyd Barrett. The normal procedure for dealing with Estimates for Departments is that they are sent to committee and that is the opportunity for spokespersons or anybody else to have their say and make their line by line analysis of what is involved. That was what happened last week when they were sent to committees for that purpose. However, Members for their own opportunistic politics decided to walk out yesterday. In that sense, what is involved in the Estimates discussion this morning relates to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett can go to his room and telephone any one of the 130 people who work in shared services and say that his attempt in the Dáil this morning was to prevent him or her from being paid because that is what is necessary arising out of this Estimate. The same goes for Deputy Mary Lou McDonald who is wrong in her assertion also. What is involved here is the normal procedure of Government which wants to do its business to allow those same public sector workers to be paid. She has the opportunity to go to the committee and voice her opinion, line by line, if she does not like it. What she is trying to do is to prevent the workings of Government from going ahead and those people in shared services, for example, from getting their payment at the end of the week. I ask her to make up her mind. She has an opportunity to speak in the House if she wishes, after walking out of the committee yesterday where the Estimates had been sent for the purpose of discussion. She chose not to do that because she wants another forum to put forward her fantasy economics which would be catastrophic for the country.

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