Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I attended a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport yesterday at which I heard a presentation on a report of an internal audit on the operation of Iarnród Éireann. The conclusions of the report and the manner in which it was presented were genuinely shocking in terms of how taxpayers' money is being spent. While considerable public debate on the company has focused on the fraud that happened within it, for which some people have been sacked, the point of more concern is that the report makes it clear there was virtually an absence of, or very weak, systems in place to monitor the spending of taxpayers' money. In quantifying the risk to the company from the manner in which it is spending taxpayers' money, the report states financial risk is almost certain in terms of the company, and in quantifying the effect on the company, the report states the effect would be super-critical. This organisation is spending our money at a time when we are trying to find money to maintain front-line services. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Transport to come to the House to give an account of what the Government is doing to deal with this issue?

I support Senator's White's call for a debate on the overall budgetary position. It must be borne in mind that the focus is on not only finding cuts of €4 billion this year, but also on the commitment given to finding cuts of €4 billion in the budget after the forthcoming one and the budget after that. Having regard to the changes we will face and the sacrifices and awful difficulties people are experiencing, the country will be asked to take cuts at least twice again.