Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would be quite happy to sit in on Cabinet meetings to see whether not being at the Cabinet table has an influence. I believe reporting from Departments is inadequate for the House to discharge fully its responsibilities of budgetary oversight. The Government needs to do more in demonstrating equitable investment decision making and providing the evidence that supports it. I point out to the Tánaiste that Dublin has one quarter of the population yet it receives approximately half of all capital investment. I also point out that I recently tabled parliamentary questions regarding €998 million of capital investment by the Higher Education Authority in the past decade but the Department was unable to provide me with a breakdown of projects supporting that spend. We do have an issue in this regard. I certainly look forward to engaging with the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy McGrath, and maybe coming up with further initiatives that I hope would help us to share the burden and to shed light on these decisions.

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