Vol. 403 No. 9
1 Mr. Barry asked the Taoiseach if his attention has been drawn to the fact that some Government Departments will only deal with inquiries from TDs and Senators when they come through the Minister's office, whereas they will deal with the public directly; and if he will issue instructions to all Ministers to ensure that public representatives have access to all sections of all Departments.
There are no general instructions in relation to representations from public representatives, whether made directly to civil servants or otherwise. It is for each Minister to make such arrangements as appropriate for his or her own Department.
If the Deputy has any particular problem in this regard perhaps he would let me have the necessary details and I will have the matter looked into.
Does the Taoiseach consider the arrangement whereby some Ministers insist that Deputies make representations directly to them has any particular value? Would it not be more efficient that Deputies be able to make representations directly to the Department and to officials?
It is a matter for each Minister to decide, having regard to the most efficient and appropriate way of dealing with things. For instance, there is no comparison between the Department of Social Welfare and the Department of Defence. Different systems are, rightly I believe, adopted by Ministers.
I can understand that might be so, but what criteria are used? On what basis does one Department as distinct from another decide that all representations must go through the Minister's office? It does not seem to make sense. It seems to be also a problem specifically with those Departments who get the largest number of representations.
There are no particular criteria. Very often it is a matter of tradition in the Department, the type of Department or individual preference of the Minister.
In the Department of Justice it is a well established practice that even an Opposition spokesman seeking information must go through the Minister's office. Surely we should not tolerate that in this day and age. Public representatives and the public should have access to the various sections in the Department, considering the effort that was made to bring reform into the public service and to make people working in the public service accountable, like anybody else, to the public they are serving.
No, I say it is a matter for Ministers to decide how they run their own Departments.
