The Government’s comprehensive spending review has not been published because it is not completed, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.
Mr Kenny said carrying out a detailed analysis of the way expenditure had gone in the State could not be done overnight.
He added the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin had asked every Minister to carry out an analysis and report to him about the spending of public money.
“This process is in train,” said Mr Kenny. “Obviously, the pre-budget outlook will be available and there will be the publication of a three-year fiscal plan upfront.”
Mr Kenny was replying in the Dáil this afternoon to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who said he was surprised last week when it emerged that the publication of the spending review would be held back until after the completion of the budgetary and estimates process.
“In opposition, both Fine Gael and Labour waxed lyrically about an open and transparent process on the Budget,” he added. “That is certainly not the case here now.”
Mr Martin said every Government department had supplied the required information as early as last June.
Separately, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said it was "disgraceful" that two of Mr Kenny's special advisers were each earning €168,000 a year, paid for by taxpayers.
Mr Adams challenged Mr Kenny to stand over the salaries after introducing "with great hullabaloo" a €92,672 salary cap on special advisers earlier this year.
He said the salaries - paid to two of the Taoiseach's four close aides, Mark Kennelly and Andrew McDowell - was nearly three times the average industrial wage.
Mr Adams asked the Taoiseach how he circumvented his own pay ceiling for special advisers.
But Mr Kenny said they were "publicly informed" salaries and substantially less than what some public servants earned in the past.
Additional reporting: PA