Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. I did not realise that Priority Questions could be grouped and I was at a meeting of the committee on agriculture earlier.

Section 2 of the report discusses the rationale for the study. It states that the Citizens Information Board had been requested by the Department of Social Protection and the Comptroller and Auditor General to undertake this work. Did the Minister or any officials from her Department issue a directive to CIB, because that would be totally at variance with what she said? The Minister said she was unable to intervene as the CIB was an independent body, yet according to section 2 she or rather her officials were involved. We are not surprised by this. According to page 6 of the report, the consultants have not undertaken a sufficient study of CIB and its activities from which to draw definitive conclusions on the efficiency of its network. Was that not the very essence of their task? I suggest that they could not do it because they never spoke to a single stakeholder on the ground. They spoke to all the top boys from whom the idea originated. This is nothing more than the application of we-know-best, top-down policy and telling people to sit down like little boys and do what they are told.

It is clear that substantial additional funding will be required to implement the proposed restructuring. That is clearly at variance with the excuse used for setting up the new structure in the first place. The set up costs will be about €2 million and will grow. There will be ongoing costs, which have been totally underestimated.

Will the Minister ask the board where it will find all the savings? Virtually none of the board claims even a penny of expenses. Did the consultants misunderstand when they said that an additional €14.97 million will be achieved in additional output as a result of the restructuring over eight years. There is a laugh on page 25 of the report where it says the release of 770 volunteers will free them up to volunteer elsewhere in the economy resulting in the additional value to the economy of €4.9 million. On the contrary, their expertise will be lost to MABS and the whole thing will implode.

The Minister says that she does not have power but if I were her, I would call in the head honchos who are acting like little dictators in trying to implement a policy that does not have the support of one Member of the Oireachtas and very few people to whom it provides a service.

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