Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)

Go raibh maith agat, a Aire, but let us focus on spending reviews and 2025, and not all the other things that have happened. The Government has a track record of wasting public money. We need look no further than the bike shed for an example of that. In previous years, spending reviews were published in the run-up to the budget. That did not happen this year. Why not? Why is the Minister suppressing these reports?

At the budgetary oversight committee, we were told by the Parliamentary Budget Office that about 50 spending reviews were carried out this year and that these were not published. Some 250 IGEES personnel worked on these spending reviews in every Department. It is a significant amount of work but we have not seen what is in these reviews. The public has a right to know what is in them. When will the Minister publish them? Is there something in these spending reviews the Minister does not want us to see? If not, will he commit now to publishing all spending reviews that have been carried out in 2025?

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