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

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2012. As the Minister has said the Bill is quite short and deals with some specific matters. While it is useful in that regard, it is only useful in so far as it goes. The legislation leaves much to be desired and should have included other matters. I will deal with one or two of those points specifically. I do not believe the public will fully appreciate what has been omitted from the legislation and should have been included. I ask the Minister to take that on board and for a common sense approach to prevail on Committee Stage when it comes to amendments we will propose. We are supporting the legislation at this Stage as it is an important step in the overall process of improving our public finances, but I believe the Bill can be improved as it goes through the House.

The Bill allows the Government to anchor its already operational multiannual expenditure limits in national law. This is a requirement under the EU-IMF programme of financial support for Ireland signed almost three years ago. Specifically, the Bill amends the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act 2011 and provides for medium-term expenditure management in Ireland through both multiannual Government and ministerial expenditure ceilings, which is important. This was required under the EU-IMF programme agreed in November 2010. We are within six months of November 2013 when we will exit the programme and this issue should have had much greater priority. The EU-IMF troika will practically have left our shores before this legislation will have been enacted.

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