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

Such a person would be run out the door and told it was no way to run his or her business. This should have been planned weeks and months ahead. The Minister's statement that his Department cannot pay its staff is an absolute case of self-incrimination. He is condemning the way he runs his own Department. He is allowing staff to work up to this Friday even though there is no money in the kitty to pay them. How can any employer run a business in that way? This is an indictment of the way the Minister runs his Department. He has run this to the wire. He knew it could be foreseen. He should have come up with a proposal that did not have the Croke Park II deal embedded in it. The Minister came into this House last December, on the last sitting day of the year, with a Supplementary Estimate for Vote 12, seeking extra money for retired civil servants' superannuation. He said he would not be able to pay pensioners the following Friday. Since the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was established, it has had a habit of presiding over the biggest set of Supplementary Estimates. It gets its figures wrong to start with. This is the second time the Minister has come here in an emergency situation asking for money today to pay staff tonight so there will be money in their bank accounts on Thursday night.

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