Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Seldom are some of the powers utilised and there is an extraordinary potential for the Oireachtas to do more. Let me give an instance, and one that I shall give to the Committee of Public Accounts when I appear before it. We have changed the budgetary system here at my instigation last year. We produced a three year envelope of expenditure, in terms of the ceilings for every Department, in order that what we need to achieve is known for the next three years. We also published all of the comprehensive review of expenditure data in order that all of the options for cuts and modifications are available. On 1 January I wrote to the Chair of every committee asking him or her not to wait until the budget but to call in Secretaries General to debate ideas, examine the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure, CRE, and determine recommendations to Government for what should or should not be done. I have not been overwhelmed-----