Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 30:

In page 26, subsection (2), line 40, after "Authority" to insert the following:

"but shall not exceed a percentage of the annual budget of the DTA to be specified by the Minister in regulations on approval from the Houses of the Oireachtas".

We have much experience of outside bodies providing expertise and consulting services to the DTA or other bodies on how their jobs should be well performed. The thinking behind this amendment is that if we are establishing an organisation that is meant to pool the best expertise and thinking on transport and the needs of commuters in the Dublin region, there should be a similar decrease in its need to hire consultants or outside bodies to tell it what to do and how to do it. At times we have too much decision making by consultants. If we are going to establish an organisation that will have the best qualified people on the board, there should be a decrease in the amount of money that needs to be spent on consulting services this organisation will be able to procure.

This amendments seeks to give the Minister the power to cap the amount of money this organisation would spend on consulting services by expressing it as a percentage of the overall budget, which the Minister will set. If the Minister is investing the time and energy of his Department in establishing this organisation to deal with the issues of commuters in Dublin and the region, the least we can expect is that it will have the expertise to do the job well. The least taxpayers would expect is a decrease in the amount of money the organisation would need to spend on outside services.