Page 4038 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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would have been a little more circumspect if he had followed that course of action. But it would appear that this gung ho Minister, keen to impress, was not prepared to defer on the occasions that he should have just to clarify a point. Because of that particular process that he has adopted, he continues to dig himself further and further into the mire by seeking to justify a statement.
Let us turn, Mr Deputy Speaker, to the original statement that started this whole issue. For some reason or other, Mr Connolly seems to suggest that, as chairman of the Estimates Committee, I was trying to trap him into answering a particular question. I was not trying to trap Mr Connolly in any way, shape or form. I was trying to get an answer to what I thought was a reasonably respectable question. Here we have a situation where the Government is about to increase the number of child-care places by 80 and my concern was to make sure that it would have sufficient resources to enable it to do that job correctly. So, I asked the question: "Will there be any changes in the number of staff employed in licensing related functions?".
Ms Follett: Read your first question.
MR JENSEN: "Will there be any changes?".
Ms Follett: What was the first question?
MR JENSEN: It is not the question I am talking about. The question I asked was whether there would be any changes in the number of staff employed in licensing related functions in the children's day care services section in 1991-1992. There is no doubt about that. Would there be any changes? The Minister then went on to say, "No, no".
It occurred to me, as I have already indicated, that once again we had an increase in activity. It seemed incredible that the Government, when it was proceeding at some haste to make some considerable cuts in the public service, would in fact be going to increase the number of licences and do it with the same number of staff. So, I followed up the question and said:
So you are confident that you will be able to establish and license and supervise those additional 80 new child-care places with the same staff you already have at the moment; is that correct?
"Yes" was the answer Mr Connolly gave. Mr Deputy Speaker, quite clearly, the answer there is straight: "Yes". As far as I could see, Mr Connolly was saying, "We are going to do it with the same staff". Anyone who listened to that answer would have to wonder how someone could say yes to that question and then go on and contemplate further cuts in this area, which have been clearly identified in questions by Ms Maher in this place.
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