asked the Taoiseach if he will consider the advisability of co-ordinating public works dealing with drainage in one Department and so obviate the duplication that exists at present in this vital work of national reconstruction.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Drainage Schemes: Co-ordination of Work.
4.
The existing arrangements for consultation and co-ordination on drainage activities between the departments and offices concerned are generally satisfactory, and it does not appear that it would be practicable or advantageous to assign responsibility for all classes of drainage work to a single department.
Is it not a fact that there are about four different Departments dealing with different types of drainage and that there is very often overlapping between these Departments so that one Department does not know what another Department is doing although they are working on the same scheme? In the light of that, does the Taoiseach not consider that a co-ordinated policy would make for more efficiency and harmony?
Drainage is done by the Forestry Department in conjunction with afforestation work; it is done by the Land Commission in conjunction with farm division and other activities which are its responsibility and it would be impracticable to require that all these types of drainage done in relation to specific activities in different Departments should be undertaken by another Department. The matter was fully examined by an interDepartmental Committee some years ago and they came to the conclusion that existing arrangements which provide for very close liaison between all Departments are the most practicable and most advantageous.