Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not going away, but neither is the need for improved public services. I will read out to Deputy Cullinane the number of expenditure requests he has articulated in recent weeks. He has called for increased investment in University Hospital Waterford, increased investment for services for people with disabilities in his county, additional classrooms for a school in his constituency, the amalgamation of two grades in the Civil Service, increased investment in transport in his area, more people to be assigned to the Garda divisional unit, increased investment in Waterford Institute of Technology, funding for Institute of Technology, Carlow and funding for University Hospital Galway. Alongside these, he is asking for increased money and increased investment in public pay.

I have made clear to the Deputy a number of times, indeed well over 100 times, that I am committed to doing so, but it has to be done in an affordable manner. As I have just demonstrated, Deputy Cullinane makes calls in the House for increased expenditure in area after area without taking account of the fact that the overall cost of those calls is not one that the taxpayer is capable of meeting. For these reasons I have said that where possible I will deal with questions of how to improve public pay, but that it must be done in a way that is affordable in the long run and allows many of the other initiatives for which the Deputy has called to happen.

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