Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

The value of a report such as this is that it provides hard figures which one can discuss and from which one can make evaluations. In his contribution Senator Hanafin said that the figures indicate we have a fairly lean public service, while Senator O'Malley inferred something quite different in her contribution when she referred to the perceived over-manning and bureaucratic structure in the public service. Evaluating the size of our public sector against that of other countries only becomes valid when one considers the type of country we have. The population of our country is predominantly young and growing, which is very different from the situation in France or Germany. One could expect, therefore, that our public service would be smaller at this stage in our demographic development than the public sectors of those countries. However, that is not the case.

The core issue I tried to raise in my contribution is the fact that the need for a well funded and excellently delivering public service will be greater in the next ten or 15 years than in the past but our ability to pay for that public service will be under more pressure than it has been in the past. As a Minister of State in the Department of Finance and somebody who is aware of the discussions taking place, what is the Deputy Mansergh's thinking on how we will rise to that challenge? What will be the contribution of the Government, in light of this report and the discussions taking place, to squaring that circle? The discussions about the funding of the HSE will be of an entirely different nature if, in a few years, we have economic growth that is probably less than half of what we have enjoyed over the last decade.