'No undue delay' in An Bord Snip report

THE AN Bord Snip Nua report was "only fresh from the printer'' yesterday, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihansaid.

He said that it followed “much textual work’’ required during the past fortnight to finalise the content. “There has been no undue delay, although a deadline date of June 30th was set,’’ Mr Lenihan said. “The publication of the report has gone a few days beyond that, but there has not been substantial slippage.’’

Asked by Fine Gael's Kieran O'Donnellwhat he would recommend to the Cabinet, the Minister replied: "I express my views on these matters to my colleagues in Government. That is the duty of a Minister and that is how a Minister operates.''

Mr O’Donnell suggested that it was time to change the budgetary process to allow the estimates and annual output statements to be debated well in advance of the pre-budget outlook.

He asked the Minister if he would allow the Opposition to have an input into the estimates whereby they could be changed by moving figures from one area to another to bring about efficiencies. “At present, the Opposition has not seen the estimates on budget day and there is no proper discourse,’’ he added.

Mr Lenihan said that, in recent years, there had been a unified budgetary process in which the estimates of expenditure were announced on the same day as the taxation proposals.

“That is the new, unified budget proposal introduced by my predecessors, which was considered a milestone on the path to reform,’’ Mr Lenihan said.

He added that he would be anxious, leading up to the budget, to give the maximum amount of information to the Opposition parties, as he did before the supplementary budget.

“I hope to repeat that facility, but I am not sure we can go much further than that,’’ Mr Lenihan said. “I thought that process was useful before the supplementary budget.’’

Mr O’Donnell insisted there was no constitutional reason preventing the Minister making known the build-up to the estimates.

“The Minister continually suggests the Opposition should be involved in the process,’’ he added. “Therefore, he should let us have a structured approach on the estimates.’’