Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I did not hear the Senator's comments. It seems an affront to the political process that the civil servants who draft the budget and put it before the Ministers are the ones who know what is in it. They are the ones who debate what cuts will be made. The Dáil, which will sign off on it today, will simply be rubber-stamping it and rushing it through.

I am calling for our budgetary process to begin well in advance and to be out in the open, with which I am sure the Members opposite would not disagree. We should explain to various lobby groups why certain cuts are being made rather than simply ramming them through both Houses and presenting them as a fait accompli to those who are democratically elected. Those who draft the budget, the civil servants, should be held to account in advance to the budget by all the committees. This sham where the budget is simply rammed through by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, who are running the country and who decide on the €2.5 billion cuts or €3 billion depending-----