One would have thought that, with such vast amounts at stake, the evaluation and choice of projects and their management and control as they proceeded would be of the highest possible standard. The review, unfortunately, shows that this is far from being the case. In some respects it seems that we are going backwards. One of the benefits we gained from the EU-supported spending of the 1980s and 1990s was a move away from the stop-go of annual budgeting to the more cost-effective multi-annual funding approach. The review highlights the fact that under the NDP we seem to be reverting more and more to annual budgeting. This gives our friends, the mandarins in Merrion Street – I hope they do not mind being called mandarins as it is a term that is in common usage – more control over the spending. It does so, however, at an unacceptable cost. They should not be allowed to get away with this backsliding. We should insist that they adhere to the lessons so patiently taught us by the EU, even though its input in spending is decreasing.