Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Can I further ask whether, given that the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Finance, issued a similar statement bringing to the public attention the tendency to overspend in certain areas, is it within the capacity of management to curtail this in sufficient amounts and numbers between now and remainder of the year? The tendency in an election year, and we have two elections coming up shortly, is that various commentators call for more expenditure. When more expenditure, or over-expenditure, takes place, they claim incompetence. They claim that too much money is being wasted, as they say, but it is not always wasted. There is a dilemma. Is the Minister satisfied that sufficient measures are in hand to discourage the tendency in any individual Department to take off without control?

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