andMr. P. Barry asked the Minister for Finance if he intends to adhere to the commitment given in a reply to parliamentary question 110 of 13 December 1979 that the Government would continue with the publication of Green and White papers as part of the planning procedures for economic and social development.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Economic and Social Development.
15.
I do. The exercise of the planning function by the Government will include the periodic publication of White and Green Papers.
May I ask the Minister whether the entire former staff of the extinguished Department of Economic Planning and Development are now in a wing of his Department?
Not the entire staff, but the part of it which had the planning function has been incorporated with the Department of Finance and will now assume the normal planning work of that Department.
Before the Government of which the Minister is part got into office in 1977 there had been cycles of Green and White Papers. Are we to be left without those cycles because the Department has been extinguished?
The Deputy seems to be giving information, not asking questions.
Very often we have to ask a question by making a statement. Is it the situation that, notwithstanding the deliberate extinction for political reasons of the Department concerned the principal feature for which that Department became conspicuous, mainly the issuing of White and Green Papers, has become redundant?
White and Green Papers had been issued long before that Department came into being, and that will be continued.
We had programmes for economic development but the last two sank under Fianna Fáil's feet.
That is not a question.
The Deputy should be in my place making statements and I should be asking the questions.
Questions Nos. 16 and 17 have gone for written reply.