An article in last weekend's edition of the Sunday Independent emphasises a number of pressures on the State's income and expenditure. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is referenced on numerous occasions in the article, so it is getting to that time of the year again. What is interesting is that the report issued by his Department refers to public service pay pressures, the deep housing crisis and various other issues, such as the Brexit challenge, but it does not mention the pressure on people with disabilities. There are 600,000 people in Ireland with disabilities and they are extremely worried about the challenges that are arising in respect of public expenditure ceilings. To take respite care as an example, if one talks to the parents of children with autism, respite has ceased, certainly in my region, where there is no respite care whatsoever. The policies in place are reducing the services to people with disabilities. We need some assurance that the programme for Government commitment in regard to disabilities will be adhered to and prioritised in the context of Government spending.

The Minister brought a memo to Cabinet this morning. I ask him to address that matter for Deputy Micheál Martin.

The memo to which the article refers contains more than a reference to me; it is from me. The memo lays out the spending review that the Government will be implementing across this year.

This is the kind of spending review that is a normal part of how a government should do business, but it did not take place in the period leading up to the crisis or in the period during which the crisis occurred. The objective will be to identify how one third of Government expenditure is used against the objectives for which that expenditure is set aside. The objective is that over a three-year period, all Government expenditure will be reviewed.