Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

——on the 3% cut in the wages bill of the Departments. Given that it is not specified, there is a big risk that front-line services in local authorities such as roads will suffer. There is no potential to cut front-line services, particularly the roads programme, in my county and a number of others. I am concerned on that level. I would ask the Leader to seek an assurance that front-line services are not to be affected and that these changes are to be achieved otherwise. It is wrong to leave the details vague and to pass on the decision-making process there, and I would ask the Leader to do something about that.

I accept the proposition made by Senator Fitzgerald at the outset, that education and health, by virtue of not continuing the reduction of class size and by a plethora of cutbacks, respectively, are experiencing cutbacks. We need the Leader to come back to the House with a statement of what specifically is involved here and an assurance on front-line services.