Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 2: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will publish in full the Comprehensive Spending Review of all Government Departments in a single document; and if so, when he will do so. [20521/11]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Ministers have been working with their Departments in recent weeks to complete reviews of all expenditure under their auspices, including in bodies under their aegis. These reports are now being submitted to the steering committee for evaluation and finalised reports will be presented to the economic management council in September. The results of the comprehensive review process will then be brought before Government for consideration and decision in the budget and Estimates process later this year. The question of publication of the reviews will be considered in that context.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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We are pleased the Minister is in the Chamber to take our questions. The broad smile on his face suggests he is equally pleased to be here. The Minister has made much of the promised spending review which, by definition, will be a comprehensive process. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, has made clear that not alone will the Government seek to reach the target of €3.6 billion in cutbacks in the next budget, as required under the terms of the bailout deal, but may seek to secure savings of as much as €4 billion.

In the interests of transparency, good decision-making and fair play, the Minister must publish the comprehensive spending review in full, as a single document. If the Government is asking people to shoulder the burden, to be patriotic in tolerating austerity and cutbacks, the very least to which the public and the Members of this House are entitled is full and frank information. It is very odd, given that his remit relates to transparency and reform, that the Minister would undertake such a comprehensive procedure only to shield it from the view and consideration of this House and of concerned groups and individuals. The response that it will be sent to a steering committee or sub-committee is not adequate; we take it as read that it will go through those machinations. Why can we not have sight of it in its entirety? It could be published on the Department's website, an innovation of which the Minister is rightly proud.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for her positive comments. In terms of transparency, it is constitutionally a matter for the Government to formulate the budget and to present it to the House. All of the documentation will eventually be published, but I want to allow the broadest possible discussion and analysis within the Cabinet. I have opened up the process to ensure it is not the routine salami-slicing affair and I hope significant new approaches will emerge from that. However, all of this must be analysed by Government. It would do damage to the decision-making process if every idea were put out there, even those never likely to be acceptable to Government, until the proper constitutional role of the Government itself to make decisions is determined. After that, all the presentations to my Department will be made available for consideration by Members opposite and others.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Government has indicated that in seeking to reach its target of €4 billion in cutbacks, income tax rates and social welfare payments will not be touched. This raises the question of where the reductions will be targeted, if the money is not coming from those sources. It is unacceptable for the Minister to say that the process of analysing expenditure should not be available to people beyond a narrow grouping around the Cabinet table. The Minister and other Government members have correctly said that it is essential that we consider all options and make the right decisions, driven by the principles of fair play and transparency. If the Minister is serious about that, it is incumbent on him to publish this document in full.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy seems to be under something of a misapprehension. The comprehensive spending review is not a document but a process.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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It could be presented in that format.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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It could not. It is a process, with submissions coming in and an analysis undertaken of those submissions. There is scope for external inputs. For example, I have sought views from the public and we are receiving many useful proposals from front line workers, people who know how savings and improvements can be made in their own workplace. All of this is feeding into the comprehensive review of expenditure. It is not a document being devised by some mastermind; it is a process. Constitutionally, all of this must be weighed up and decided upon by the elected Government. I want the process to be as open as possible. Ideas will be put out there, no doubt, in the course of that and I look forward to interaction with the Oireachtas committees in this regard. However, the Government itself must be in a position to make rational decisions on the basis of all of the options available to it.