Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I approve, read and alter all answers I deliver here. They are not prepared in some way externally.

I am responsible for all answers I give here.

To answer this particular question, one cannot take one budget in isolation, particularly in times of crisis; nor can one compare the three budgets we have had, which have been crisis budgets designed to rescue us from disaster, to a normal budgetary cycle. That is why I explained to the Deputy that we have changed the whole mechanism for doing budgets by asking each committee, through the new line Department system, to do the work and to call in the Secretaries General well in advance of the budget. They should do so now, before the budget is announced in October, and look at the comprehensive review of expenditure and at all the options. I suggest that the committees drill down into the options and make recommendations. We will provide as much data to the committee system as Deputies require.

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