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

The Minister is essentially saying he wants to stage-manage the timing of receipts from the sale of State assets to assist the budgetary process next year. There is an unexplained figure here. Despite the requirement for an adjustment of €3 billion last year, the Government announced an adjustment of €2.4 billion on budget day. Some of the balance of €600 million was made up using the proceeds from the sale of State assets. The Minister indicated previously that these proceeds would be used for a particular purpose. He now says some will be held off until next year to help the budget next Christmas. Perhaps the adjustment in next October's budget will be very light given that the Government proposes to deliberately hold back proceeds from the sale of State assets to help meet deficit targets next year.

I ask the Minister to address redundancies in the public service, an issue to which he did not refer. The Minister for the Environment, Communications and Local Government has spoken in the House about leaks, boil-water notices and vulnerable water supplies. Why not use the proceeds from the sale of the parent company of Irish Water, Bord Gáis Éireann, to fix water problems, rather than wait for water charges to be introduced to every household to fund such works?

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