The Committee on Budgetary Oversight published a report this month entitled An Overview of Comparative Parliamentary Engagement in the Budgetary Cycle. The report notes that despite some improvements that have been made since the previous financial crisis "parliamentary involvement in the budgetary cycle may still be suboptimal", which is code for terrible and it really is terrible. I want to hear from the Minister what plans he has in regard to enhancing the robustness of our parliamentary democracy and our parlia…

Of course, the Committee on Budgetary Oversight is now in place, as is the Parliamentary Budget Office. They are two very important innovations in terms of robust oversight of expenditure and budget planning in terms of the parliamentary process. Those innovations were introduced in response to the previous financial crisis and deficits identified by international organisations in terms of best practice in this country. To boil it down, a small number of approximately 15 individuals, with the Minister, Deputy McGra…

I hope the Minister will agree that, constitutionally, the Dáil has a very important function in terms of the allocation of resources. It behoves the Executive to provide a more balanced approach to budget planning and to ensure not just that resources are made available to the Dáil in our consideration of budgets and financial matters, but that the political will is there to provide the House with the ability to do that and to work collectively in terms of targeting resources where they are needed most. That is a …

I do not plan to detain the House too long. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the Minister of State's remarks and to discuss what the Bill seeks to achieve in general terms. I also appreciate that sections of the Bill have been long overdue, as well as long awaited. It is not too long ago since the media uncovered the fact that such ILP funds are not covered by European anti-money laundering law which requires the identification and registration of the real owners behind obscure and complex funds. Likewise…

Brexit is nothing short of a tragedy and most of all it is a tragedy for the British people. Those who were conned into voting to take back control will, as a direct result of Brexit, see their Government take control all right - control of a faltering economy, a poorer, less diverse society and a deeply uncertain future. Far from delivering on the promise of a Britain more respected and more influential in the world, the conduct of the Brexit project to date has, in fact, sullied Britain’s reputation and the statu…

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is very welcome to the Chamber. It is fair to say that it is a cliché that Members of the Opposition stand up on budget day and condemn the Budget Statement as a missed opportunity and so on. The Minister has heard that on far too many occasions for his own liking, but sometimes these old clichés and tropes can have an element of truth to them. I believe this to be the case this year. With additional spending of more than €17 billion, it takes a chancer to claim that nothing good whats…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to make further provision in relation to restrictions on the post-term employment of certain persons as lobbyists, for that purpose to amend the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015, and to provide for related matters. It is a case of better late than never for me in introducing this Bill today. Sometimes we need reminding that this is a legislative assembly. Legislation governing the conduct of politics and the point at which politics, business and other…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I appreciate that this is a technical matter but I would like to have my views on the matter recorded. The Minister of State is welcome this evening and, on behalf of the Labour Party, I welcome this move. I thank the Minister of State's officials for the briefing afforded to my colleague and I on the matter yesterday. We understand that these measures are required, and certain identified restrictions on GDPR rights may be imposed with the approval of these Houses to safeguard important Central Bank-related objecti…

It is nauseating to see stores that should be closed because of level 5 restrictions remain open on the basis that they sell essential products when these essential products account for 1% or 2% of their trade or floor space. New regulations have been developed overnight. Will restrictions be put in place to curtail those practices, which I think the Tánaiste will agree are unfair?

We have known deadly disease on our island before. In the 1800s, the Great Hunger saw millions emigrate or die of famine, diphtheria, cholera, fever and smallpox. In the last century, TB or consumption destroyed thousands of lives. It may be folk memory now, but its legacy lingers on. It took the vision of a socialist, Deputy Noël Browne, to deliver the infrastructure and the drive that tackled that insidious disease, but the vision of a social public health system was blocked by vested interests. It has yet to be …

There is widespread relief this afternoon at the figures contained in the Department's outlook published today. In April, it was predicted that GDP would crash by 10.5%, whereas the figures published today suggest instead that it will shrink by 2.5% only, a significant figure but one we can accommodate. Worryingly, unemployment will be 2% higher than forecast at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic. With the prospect of a no-deal Brexit coming into view, as we all know, unprecedented action is very much neede…

Ahead of the announcement of the July stimulus, the Government decided to appoint teams of special advisers to the offices of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I described it at the time as the Government parties' very own job creation initiative, or a July stimulus for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. In the week that the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, is being cut, the Government, with the sanction of the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, as the Minister in charge of…

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. I assure the Minister that I am not throwing cheap, political potshots at the Minister and his Government colleagues on the appointment of a raft of special advisers for junior Ministers. I do not believe it is in my nature to do so and the Minister may know this. The Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Ossian Smyth, correctly pointed out on "The Week in Politics" this week that I enjoyed the support of two special advisers d…

Will the Minister clarify for the record that he does not have any plans to sanction the approval of or appoint any additional advisers? I believe that 64 is more than enough. During the 2011-16 Government the country was in the mire and battling for its very survival and it had 30-plus advisers. For a country with 15 Cabinet Ministers, a Chief Whip, a super junior Minister and probably the largest majority we have ever seen in the history of the State, I am open to be persuaded but remain to be convinced of the me…

As a Minister of State, not as a super junior Minister.

The KBC tracker mortgage scandal illustrates something problematic in this country, namely, we do not do accountability. The culture of banking needs to change in this country. While my party welcomes the €18.3 million fine issued by the Central Bank today, it does not change anything in terms of holding individual bankers to account for their actions. Corporations do not make decisions; individuals do. Two years ago, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, promised to introduce a new senior executive accountabil…

The Minister will remember the years between 2011 and 2016 very well and the oft-quoted mantra of the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. Was it a bit of virtue signalling and not a mantra, as the current Tánaiste might say? Enda Kenny wanted to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business. I always countered that assertion by saying that we should also make this country the best small country in the world in which to work, but, manifestly, it is not and nowhere is this more evident than in the …

Drogheda urgently needs a Covid-19 testing centre. I thank the 1,307 people who signed a petition on this matter that I launched several days ago. That shows the depth of feeling in the area and the need for a testing centre in Ireland’s largest town. It is a travesty that Ireland's largest town does not have a Covid-19 testing centre. The population of Drogheda town alone is in excess of 40,000. With its hinterland included, its population is approximately 70,000. The population of Drogheda is larger than the popu…

The idea that a testing centre in Dundalk would be closed down and moved to Ardee misses the point entirely. That is splitting the difference. For the sake of good planning we should be making sure that the response is where the service is needed, which in this case is Drogheda. Looking at it on population terms or need terms, an objective case can and should be made to locate a centre of some permanence in Drogheda. The HSE facilities are there and it would not take huge initiative to try to ensure that the resour…