Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 3, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following:

“Amendment of section 3A of Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial, Parliamentary, Judicial and Court Offices (Amendment) Act 1998

2. The Minister shall lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas within 3 months of the passing of this Act on the need and appropriateness of expanding the number of Ministers of State.”.

I have spoken on this before. I appreciate that the Minister of State has given us various examples of what she and the Government believe are good uses of public spending. However, these are anecdotal and we need to see more evidence to really talk about strategic benefit. What we have heard today is not evidence or data. It is not what I would describe as a meaningful business case for bringing this forward. As I said earlier today, I am not inherently opposed to this but we need a meaningful business case to bring this to the public and to make sure we are reinforcing public trust in our work. I do not consider the process we are hearing about to be very strategic. We may potentially undermine the trust the public will have in the political system. That is why I have brought forward this amendment.