Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government promised a new era of transparency in budgetary formation. It was the most important dialogue between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the formation of Government. It meant we would have the participation of this House in budgetary formation. I suggested the national economic dialogue but it was not simply to be a forum where people came and did what they always did, namely, lay out a list of aspirations, hopes and demands; it was actually to engage in the real negotiations for the budget by knowing what was available and saying what the priorities should be within that fiscal limit.

What is happening now is the opposite to that transparency. It is making a mockery not only of the commitment for this House to be a real participant in budgetary formation but of an open budgetary system. I despair of real parliamentary accountability in relation to budgetary reform. When will the summer economic statement, which was due weeks ago, actually be published, and will it be published before the Dáil goes into recess?

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