Seanad debates

Thursday, 12 December 2002

Appropriation Bill, 2002 [Certified Money Bill]: Second and Subsequent Stages.

 

We also need to change the Estimates process. The Minister referred to this earlier and in the debate in the Lower House. Progress will be made if we know, for example, how much money is meant to be spent. We know what is the pattern of spending over the course of a year, but the system needs to be much better than that. Before their Estimates are agreed, Ministers must come before the relevant committees of the House to indicate the purpose for which money is required. In addition, at the end of each year they should return and outline on what they spent the money in order that there is some way of assessing what we are getting in return for the monumental sums we are spending on behalf of taxpayers in any given year. Such a process does not really exist at present. The Estimates process is conducted almost entirely in private and by the time the Houses have the opportunity to consider them, the money is either totally committed or, more probably, largely spent. The exercise, therefore, becomes virtually academic and attracts little interest.

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