Derek McDowell (Labour)

I join others in welcoming the Minister of State. This is a good Bill, which I welcome. I listened with interest to Senator O'Toole's jaundiced approach to it. While I understand where he is coming from, if his fears were to be realised, he would have good cause for concern. The legislation reserves certain powers to the Minister and his officials which we hope will not be used that often. For example, a veto on the remuneration of staff is reserved to the Minister. However, I understand the reason that is the case as there would be a difficulty in providing that the commission, uniquely in the Civil Service, would be able to independently make local arrangements. Nonetheless, it is a pity in that we should have trusted ourselves a little more. However, when push comes to shove, it is a matter of whether the Department of Finance is willing to trust us, and it will come as little surprise to us that it does not.

It is good that the legislation takes the operation of the Houses out of the shadow of the Department of Finance. Multi-annual budgeting is the most important factor in this regard. I followed with interest the efforts of the Department over the past four or five years to introduce multi-annual budgeting throughout the Civil Service but it has not had the effect expected. It has not worked at all, partly because of the swings in the management of public expenditure generally. However, it remains a good principle that Departments or, in this case, the commission will know on a year to year basis how much money will be available and will be able to plan accordingly.

One of the most unsatisfactory elements of public expenditure is that Departments, agencies and bodies are obliged to make a grab for whatever money is available in a given year because they think it may not be available the following year. This makes the development of services in a sensible way almost impossible. It is good that, through multi-annual budgeting, the commission will know in advance how much will be available, for example, over a three year period. I hope it will develop services in a sensible way that will provide good value for money.