Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

What he is doing is important for the future of this country. Nonetheless, people need to understand the Minister's role, what he is going to do and what powers he will have, so that they can contribute to the Minister's proposals. They may, for example, want to take part in the public consultations the Minister has launched, seeking ideas from the public. The Minister has, rightly, taken the idea from Mr. David Cameron's Tories and the Lib-Dems in terms of opening up for discussion the public's ideas on expenditure cuts. I understand the Tories have had some success in this regard.

On Second Stage, the Minister told the Dáil that the Estimates procedure would remain unchanged, but he also said that the procedures would be substantially altered. We need to know what his powers and functions are. The evidence that matters of procedure and responsibility are unclear can be seen in the extent to which the Bill has been changed. The legislative timetable has been chopped and changed, yet other things have not changed although we are talking about having a Minister for Public Service and Reform. The public should know what the Minister can and will do. I think he accepted this in the other House. Therefore, the amendment seeks to implement what the Minister has already said on the record that he agrees with. Specifically, the amendment obliges the Minister to bring together in one document all his powers, responsibilities and duties listing the delegations orders, the substitutions, as they might be called, from the Minister for Finance to him as a Cabinet colleague. It also requires in paragraph (b) that the Minister "within 20 days of the appointed day lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas details of actions and target dates which fall due during 2011 which he or she views to be significant which relate to the ... annual estimates of expenditure". It requires the Minister to let the Oireachtas and, more importantly, the public know what the Estimates process for next year will be. This amendment should not pose a difficulty. Presumably in any Department there will be almost a family tree of responsibility, as it were, such as site maps on websites, a map of responsibilities setting out who is in charge of what, where it all falls down, and where the powers come from. One would assume that, as a matter of good housekeeping, that such a document would be available internally in the Department to enable it to do its work. We propose that such a document should be published and made available.