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

The Minister stated the various items I have mentioned in amendments Nos. 1 to 13 are matters which the Oireachtas has decided by law are to be paid. If the Oireachtas can decide by law that they should be paid, the Oireachtas can equally decide by law to remove them from the arrangement they are in and make them voted expenditure. We will return to this issue.

Thank God for Europe and the six pack because they are forcing us to do something which is right. It is an indictment of the Oireachtas and all of us that if we were left to our own devices, we would happily speak about next year's spending next summer when half the year had gone. Europe has brought financial discipline to how we do our business and forced us to consider these matters before the money is spent. The European Parliament has rules whereby if the budget is not passed by the end of January, one twelfth will roll forward until the budget has passed. We have arrangements in place whereby we cannot go over 80% of the previous year's budget and on occasion we had to rush measures through. It had to be done with regard to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform this year.

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