The Dáil's Public Accounts Committee has proposed a new way of agreeing the Government's Budget to avoid waste of taxpayers' money.
In a report published today, the committee recommends that the Budget should be announced when the Dáil resumes after the Summer recess.
The report says the Budget could then be examined by an enlarged finance committee before the Finance Act is passed into law.
The chairman of the PAC, Michael Noonan, said that at the moment the PAC is discovering examples of waste in public spending ‘after the horse has bolted’.
The Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, who drew up the report on which the recommendations are based, said that the proposed system would allow for proper scrutiny of Government spending plans and would cut down on waste.
Mr Rabbitte pointed out that at the moment, estimates are examined by various committees that generally pass them ‘on the nod’ because by the time they consider them, half of the money is already spent.
