Bertie Ahern
Question:7 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach the main areas of responsibility of the four Ministers of State at his Department. [2627/95]
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Ministerial Responsibilities.
Minister of State Seán Barrett has special responsibility as Government Chief Whip and for the implementation of the Government's programme of Oireachtas reform. In addition, he has responsibility for the Central Statistics Office. He is also Minister of State at the Department of Defence.
Minister of State Gay Mitchell has special responsibility at both my Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs for European Affairs generally and for the preparation for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference. He also has special responsibility at my Department for the Irish Financial Services Centre and Local Development initiatives.
Minister of State Avril Doyle has special responsibility for Consumers of Public Services at my Department and at the Departments of Finance and Transport, Energy and Communications. Her brief is to develop and implement a package of measures designed to make public organisations more transparent and efficient, and crucially more responsive to the needs of the public. She will also chair the inter-departmental committee to co-ordinate the commemoration of the Irish Famine.
Minister of State Donal Carey has special responsibility at my Department for co-ordinating the Government's commitment to western development and rural renewal and for the development and improvement of living conditions on our offshore islands. Minister of State Carey also has special responsibility for the Gaeltacht at the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.
It is not wonder the building is sagging. Why have all questions addressed to the Minister of State for western development and rural renewal been transferred to the Minister for Finance? Does the Minister of State have any ministerial responsibility? In the Irish Farmers' Journal of 4 February Deputy Carey is described as the Minister with a long title for a man with no budget and no schemes to administer. Will the Taoiseach tell us if we can put questions on western matters to the Minister of State as today some of the questions were transferred to the Minister for Finance, others to the Minister for the Environment, etc?
If there had not been quite so much circumlocution in the supplementary questions from the Opposition we might have reached the question that Deputy Carey, the Minister of State, will be answering today or tomorrow on the matter. He does have responsibilities in my Department for which he will answer in this House. The responsibilities of Deputy Carey and Doyle as Ministers of State are not confined to, or primarily involved with, the administration of any schemes. The problem we face in our public administration is that, on the one hand, individual Departments pursuing their own agendas frequently ignore the impact of those policies on rural areas and the contribution that those policies make to rural depopulation and depopulation, particularly in the west. Deputy Carey's political role in the Department of the Taoiseach, the most senior Department of State will be to influence change in policy, practice and public administration in all Departments to remove the in-built bias that currently exists in many policies pursued by State agencies and Government Departments which is antipathetic to the interests of rural areas. It is a trans-departmental role.
A similar trans-departmental role is envisaged for Deputy Doyle, Minister of State in the Taoiseach's office who will be responsible for providing a charter of rights for consumers of public services so that people who deal with State services, which as a general rule are monopoly services, will have such a charter. She will be responsible for ensuring that such charters of rights are put in place and subsequently acted on.
Has the Taoiseach developed a timetable for the trans-departmental incursions by the various Ministers?
Yes, the Ministers of State have presented me with an action programme which they intend——
Limerick East): Seven years, Deputy O'Rourke.
But the timetable for each day?
The Ministers concerned have been given short and medium-term objectives for achievement in their areas of responsibility.
I would concentrate on the short term if I were you.
Do not tempt fate.
I welcome the Taoiseach's decision to give special responsibility for matters relating to offshore islands to a Minister of State. In view of that will he outline the specific responsibilities of the Minister of State, bearing in mind the role of other Departments, local authorities and, most of all, the absolute neglect of these islands in the past?
The Minister of State will be chairing an interdepartmental committee which will look at the mix of problems that affect offshore islands.
That is not new.
There are precedents for this but it was dropped by a previous Government and nobody was actually doing it when I came into office. I am glad to reconstitute those arrangements and to ensure that Deputy Carey working in my office and reporting on a weekly basis to me on his work will be able to ensure not only that the committee meets but delivers improved living standards and quality of life to people on offshore islands.
Has he good Irish?
Order. The time available to us for dealing with questions to the Taoiseach is well nigh exhausted.
Given the onerous natures of the duties of the Ministers of State, has the Taoiseach considered giving one of these Ministers of State the role of Minister for "trivial pursuits"?
I think the Deputy's pursuits in Cork were somewhat trivial before the recent by-elections.