It is important that the Opposition keeps the Government honest on public spending. It is important too that reliable figures are given to the Opposition ahead of the annual budget so we know exactly what it costs to fund education, health and other important services. That has not been the case in recent years. We need to know exactly what it costs to fund existing services, the extra money that is needed to keep the show on the road and what money is needed for new measures. We in Labour believe honest politics means keeping the Opposition honest too. Last year the Department of public expenditure and reform refused to give out these demographic costs or information as to what it would take to maintain existing levels of service. We were met with triangulation and obfuscation. We ask every year how much is needed to meet the growing needs in special education. In budget 2026 we were sold a pup but, more importantly, so were the very families and children who need that support. Weeks ago we were told of an astonishing €646 million black hole in the Department of education. How did the Tánaiste and his colleagues get budget 2026 so badly wrong?

What is the Government's answer? A levy, effective cuts by another name, in 2027 to every Department's budget, even before pre-budget talks open. Getting direct answers from various Ministers over the past few weeks on how this will work has been like pulling teeth.

What do we know? We know that the Minister for Health, for example, has said in replies to me that she will have to find €175 million in savings to plug the hole in education. This is on top of the fact that the HSE has overspent to the tune of €250 million in the early part of this year alone. Taken in the round, then, as we speak, the Department of Health and the HSE are now on the hook for at least €425 million this year and next. The Government says that pay in health will remain untouched. That will be the case for the Department of justice as well. Which services, then, will be cut or scaled back? Which planned new services will be stalled? All of us who are health service users have a right to know. It is more money, not less, that our under-pressure health services need, and there is a limit to the efficiencies and reforms that can be extracted from a service that is already under very significant pressure. The problem is that the Minister, Deputy Chambers, has put a deadline of 17 July on Departments coming back to him with their cost-cutting proposals. I am no conspiracy theorist, but that is the day after the Dáil rises - zero accountability from this Government over the summer on the kinds of cuts we will see next year.

Will the Tánaiste commit to giving us honest figures on demographic costs and the cost of maintaining existing levels of service this year and next? Will he confirm that there will be no further asks through significant supplementary budgets being brought to the House this year for various Government Departments? I directly ask him the following question and I expect a response. What kinds of cuts does he feel need to take place in health to fund the costs in education?

I believe in honest politics as well, and I think everyone in this House engages in good faith on behalf of the people they represent, as the Deputy does too.

I reject the assertion that this is in any manner of means a cut because that would suggest that the budget of one Department will be lower than it currently is. The budgets of all Departments are growing. I do not need to remind the Labour Party, which served in government at a very difficult time, what cuts are like, when we had to make extraordinarily hard decisions to get this country out of the depths of an economic crisis. The level of public expenditure in Ireland has risen. Voted expenditure the year before Covid was €67.4 billion. Voted expenditure is now due to be €147.2 billion by 2030 and €125.5 billion next year, so the budget for every Department - he referred to the Department of Health - will be higher in 2027 than it is in 2026. It is higher in 2026 than it was in 2025. I do not believe there is anybody in Ireland watching in on these proceedings who does not believe that savings, efficiencies and reforms can be found in the public service. People do this in their own lives all the time. I think people remember the times when the Deputy and I were in government and we were asking people to find savings with less. We are now asking people to find savings with a hell of a lot more. Even if there were not a need for a levy, I think that is prudent, good management of the public purse. Every week, whether you go to the PAC or certain other committees, you can find examples of where the public service can do more and do better in terms of the expenditure of the public purse.

This will not impact 2026 allocations, and the Minister has been very clear about that. As to what Government colleagues are being asked, the Government is a collective. If we decide to do more here, it does not fall from a magic money tree; it has to be found somewhere. That is how the world works. That is how budgeting should work. That is how our medium-term fiscal plan works. Colleagues are being asked, though, in the context of 2027 budgets, where every Government Department's budget will increase, to find efficiencies and reforms. It is a very important moment of truth for the public service as well. This will not impact the 2026 allocations.

As the Deputy also rightly says, we have been very clear that the levy must not impact important areas. For example, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, is here. It must not impact the social protection Vote, people with a disability, carers or those weekly payments. It must not impact Department of Health pay allocations - in other words, staffing - or Department of justice staffing. It must not impact housing, disability services or a number of other carve-outs. This is a levy that ranges from about 0.02% to 1.4%. In the context of a budget this year of over €118 billion and a budget next year of over €125 billion, people are being asked to find that level of efficiency. We should and we will, of course, continue to engage honestly and transparently on all these matters.

That commitment to engage honestly and transparently should extend to Government Ministers and the Departments being required to come back to the Minister for public expenditure and reform well before 17 July with their very clear plans as to how these levies will impact services in their respective Departments. The reality is that the Dáil is rising on 16 July, and I do not believe that it is a coincidence that the deadline of 17 July was set. We do need accountability in this House. We know that, for example, the medium-term expenditure framework was published the day after the Dáil rose last December. That is a very significant five-year plan from the point of view of the fiscal position of this country and how we sustain our economy going forward. This is very much on brand for this Government: make important decisions when the Dáil is in recess, with no accountability and with Ministers not being available to be held to account by this House for their own budgets for 2027 and their own Estimates in advance of budget 2027. This is a very significant development from the Minister for public expenditure.

There are alternatives to the introduction of levies across Departments. We could look at, for example, reforming our taxation system and ensuring we introduce tax on wealth and assets in a more significant way to pay for the increased public services we all agree we need to introduce, but the Government has decided not to do that.

Respectfully, Ministers not being held to account is baloney. We had a budget oversight committee meeting the other day. In fairness, the Deputy was at it, he contributed and he asked all his questions. Others did not bother turning up. The meeting ended 40 minutes early. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, and I were there looking for questions to take, and the Chairman-----

I had to leave to speak here, actually.

I just want to be clear. The budget oversight committee met. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, and I were there to answer every and any question anybody wanted to ask, and it ended with 40 minutes to spare, which the Chairman then filled.

It is Government TDs who do not turn up.

It does not matter who did not turn up.

It does.

People can come back in with further questions as well. There were 40 minutes of unallocated time there. We are very accountable to this Oireachtas, and I want people at home to know that.

I also want people to know that the rising of the Dáil has nothing to do with this at all because these are figures that will affect 2027, when there will be a significant opportunity. We will have a summer economic statement, a national economic dialogue and plenty of opportunities.

I believe in good, honest politics. So does Deputy Nash. I fully accept that. It is important we are transparent in relation to all these things, but it is also important, in the spirit of honesty, that we make the following point, and people at home know this. Public spending is growing very fast in this country relative to pretty much any other European economy.

It is a prudent and sensible thing to say to those charged with expending that money, "Can you do better? Can you reform? Can you get value for money?" That is what households and small businesses do; it is about time the public service did it.