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

It was. I would have no problem discussing the overall view. I am objecting to the manner in which the Minister has embedded each line of the rejected Croke Park II deal in the Estimates since they were originally published. He could have left it the way he had it before coming back with the details when they are available. He did not need to make a pre-emptive move by embedding each line of the Croke Park deal in this way. He could have presented Estimates of €473 million, in addition to the OPW Vote, here today without embedding the Croke Park figures in them. There was a mechanism for him to do that. We did not participate in yesterday's debate because the Estimates were flawed. I would like to make another important point. It will probably amaze the Minister; he will not believe it. Objectively, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has been an absolute failure when it comes to these issues. As a new Department last year, it was the subject of the biggest Supplementary Estimate of any State body - more than €1 billion - last December. That says a lot about the new Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. While it is not the case that all the overruns with regard to shared services were in that Department, the point is that the Minister has overall responsibility for public expenditure.

See this speech in context