Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Clearly the Minister of State is very confused and does not understand what I am asking for. This is what I am asking for. Every single year since 2018 I have either written to the Secretary General of the Department or put in a parliamentary question requesting a breakdown not just of how much housing gets, heritage gets and local government gets, but every individual spending programme. Every year since 2018 I have been provided with that detailed breakdown. The Minister of State is absolutely correct in what he says about the abridged Estimates and the Revised Estimates. I think it would be in the Government's own interests not only to publish the full abridged Estimates with all the individual items, but also to publish the Revised Estimates so that there is full transparency in accountability.

Those documents are held by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; it is not a matter for the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. The documents it publishes do not go into the level of detail that I have been given by the Department of housing every single year. If the Minister of State is now saying there is a change in practice and that from this point on when Members ask they will not be given this detailed breakdown, that is a problem. In the interest of transparency, accountability and honesty, Government should provide this information. In fact, I believe it should be published on the Department's websites and should be given to the committee. It should not be up to an individual Member to have to harass and hound the Minister of State or God forbid put in a freedom of information request to get information that should be and must be in the public domain. I ask the Minister of State to reconsider, publish the three documents the Department has and give a commitment to publish the fourth when it is concluded at the end of this month.

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