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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 23 May 2018

Vol. 969 No. 5

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed)

Departmental Operations

Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

1. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the economic division of his Department. [21101/18]

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

2. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the economic division of his Department. [22243/18]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.

The economic division in my Department supports me and the Government in developing and implementing policy to deliver sustainable and regionally balanced economic growth and quality jobs, and to promote effective planning and delivery of infrastructural developments, including housing. The Cabinet committees and senior officials groups, supported by the division, help to deliver and implement policies in these areas. Cabinet Committee A deals with issues relating to the economy, jobs, the labour market, competitiveness, the digital economy, trade, the action plan on rural development and pensions. It last met on 18 January and will next meet on 11 June.

Cabinet Committee D covers infrastructure investment and delivery, housing and climate action and provides political oversight in relation to Project Ireland 2040. The committee last met on 1 February and its next meeting is not yet scheduled. The division also monitors implementation of the Action Plan for Jobs, leads Ireland's participation in the annual European semester process and prepares the annual national risk assessment which provides an opportunity to identify and consider potential economic risks and challenges on a structured basis. The draft of this was approved at Cabinet on Tuesday and will now go out to consultation over the next four-month period. Cabinet Committee D is also responsible for liaison with the Central Statistics Office, CSO. It co-ordinated the recent completion and publication of the national policy statement on the bioeconomy and works with the EU division of my Department on the possible economic impacts of Brexit.

A unit within the economic division also supports the Minister of State with responsibility for data protection, Deputy Pat Breen, and contributes to a whole-of-Government approach to the challenges and opportunities arising from the increased digitisation of modern life. The division is also leading work that recently commenced on a framework for a new national digital strategy. The division also provides me with briefing and speech material on economic and related policy issues. Given its role, the division works closely with colleagues in the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, and in other Departments, which have lead responsibility in specific policy areas.

I ask Deputies to stick to the allocated time. I call Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett.

It seems indisputable that the biggest social and economic crisis facing this country is the housing crisis and the lack of social housing and affordable housing. I was at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government this morning where departmental officials gave us the latest figures. They show that there are 86,000 families on the housing list. It is, however, much larger. We were also told that there were 36,000 people on housing assistance payments, HAP, schemes and 22,000 on rental accommodation, RAS, schemes. In reality, that means we have 144,000 households on the housing list.

Given the rental spiral happening and the extraordinary difficulty in many parts of the country of getting private landlords and the private sector to deliver HAP tenancies - in many cases they are pulling out of those tenancies - is there any recognition that HAP is just an accident waiting to happen? The reliance that the Government is putting on it in Rebuilding Ireland is an accident waiting to happen. As a supplement to that, even if it was delivered, does the Taoiseach have any estimate of how much it would cost? I refer to the target of outsourcing to the private sector about 83,000 of the planned 133,000 social housing units. I do not believe that they can be delivered under HAP and RAS. However, even if they were, is there any estimate of how much that would cost on an ongoing basis? Dr. Rory Hearne and Dr. Mary Murphy have estimated that it would cost us €23 billion over 30 years. That would be a massive drain on the public purse and that money would be far better spent investing in council housing rather than it leeching out in billions to the private sector.

If Deputies insist on asking protracted questions, we will not have time to get answers. I am however, in the Deputies' hands. I call Deputy Martin Kenny.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald had to leave and she asked me to take these questions. Deputy McDonald has met many times with the various chambers around the country. Many trends arise in many places. It is the same, for instance, in the south east as in the north west. There is an absence of ensuring basic necessary infrastructure projects. Rosslare Port is one and the western rail corridor in my area is another. It has been left out. Most sensible people looking at the issue of the broader need for economic development consider that it is largely about our infrastructure and what infrastructure needs to be put in place. I refer to transport infrastructure in particular.

The issue of Brexit means that ports where we can directly export goods from our island to other European Union countries - rather than having to go through Britain - may be very important in future. Project Ireland 2040 plan has a huge absence in doing anything on that. I ask the Taoiseach to address this and to let me know exactly what the Government intends to do. I refer in particular to the western rail corridor. It runs from Sligo all the way down the west coast and goes right out to Rosslare Port. It would be a perfect access for goods and would regenerate an entire section of the country which has the most potential for economic development.

Where stands the rainy day fund? In economic terms the amount involved is ridiculous. It is €500 million. We have a housing crisis and €500 million might go to address something like housing for older people. That would produce a rate of return as opposed to investing this €500 million somewhere around the world in whatever the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, comes up with to invest in. Any impact of this amount on the Government's finances is trivial. It a completely phony arrangement designed to shore up the Government's economic credentials. I do not understand the logic of it.

When is the fiscal space going to be determined? It is €1.8 billion for new measures, excluding demographic pressures and public pay costs. The precommitted expenditure is €2.6 billion. When will the amount of fiscal space be officially confirmed? The Taoiseach also noted people doing various economic things in his Department. How many economists are employed in his Department?

I think 25 people work in the economic division of the Taoiseach's Department. It is also responsible for statistics and supporting the Cabinet and Cabinet committees in respect of housing. Is the Taoiseach happy to stand over his claim that he made at the Fine Gael Ard-Fheis last year that the Government had a plan and the plan was working in respect of housing? On housing statistics, I asked the Taoiseach last week to give an assurance that 100% comparability would be maintained between current and previous homelessness statistics. I also asked that he would not allow a situation where future statistics excluded groups that were previously included. It is fine if he wants to publish a new set of statistics. Denying people the ability to compare like with like is, however, not okay. This concern is obvious because the deterioration in the situation in the past two years is shocking.

Overall homelessness is up 85%, with child homelessness increasing by an unprecedented 125%. In health, the past seven years have been spent meddling with figures in an attempt to cover up lengthening waiting lists and underestimates of costs. The same behaviour cannot be tolerated when it comes to homelessness. As the Department of the Taoiseach is in charge of official statistics, will the Taoiseach assure Members that full comparability in housing and homelessness statistics will be maintained?

When it comes to our economic and social policies more generally, the Government really works under six main principles. The first is managing our public finances prudently, having got into a situation where the budget is balanced and running surpluses on occasion, and paying down the national debt.

The second principle is full employment and we will reach our targets in that regard that quite soon. We are expecting that figures in June will indicate that more people in Ireland are at work than ever before. We also want to make sure that employment is quality employment that pays well, gives people a degree of security, is family friendly and provides pensions. Auto-enrolment is a part of that plan.

The third principle is raising living standards. Living standards in Ireland are rising, deprivation and poverty are falling and income inequality is narrowing, which we know from the CSO statistics.

The fourth principle is investment in infrastructure, housing and healthcare, with a focus on transport. Next year there will be a 25% increase in our infrastructure budget compared with this year. We have set out how we will spend €116 billion on public infrastructure over ten years.

The fifth principle is the reform of public services. We have now reversed the cuts in terms of spending. Education and health spending are at an all-time high. We now need to make sure that those additional, record resources actually result in good outcomes and good results for taxpayers, students and patients.

The sixth principle is the idea of Global Ireland and doubling our global footprint. We will produce a detailed plan on that in the next couple of weeks.

Everyone acknowledges that we have a housing shortage in Ireland, and we are all aware of how that happened. There was a seven-year period during which the Government could not afford to build social housing, the banks could not finance the construction of housing and the construction sector was on its knees. Virtually no houses were built in the country during that time and we now have a deficit of approximately 250,000 units, in terms of additional houses and apartments that need to be built. We added 7,000 houses to the social housing stock in a number of different ways, including purchases from developers, direct builds by councils and direct builds by approved housing bodies. That is the biggest increase in our social housing stock for many years. Having added 7,000 houses to our social housing stock next year, we plan to increase that to 10,000 or 11,000 a year, which the amount of social housing we need. We have to build up to that number; they cannot all be built at once.

The conversation around housing should not revolve around social housing entirely. We need to bear in mind that the vast majority of people do not qualify for and do not want social housing but rather want to buy their own homes and to save for that. However, there is a need to provide homes for that purpose which are affordable. In my constituency house building is really taking off again. As 18,000 new homes commenced construction in the past year, we are a little bit short of what is required to get to equilibrium, which is approximately 25,000. We believe we will get to that number next year and it will rise again to 35,000 the year after. The plan is working but it is working slowly, which is an inevitability, unfortunately. Housing construction cannot be ramped up as quickly as we would like, given that it reached such a nadir as a consequence of the financial crisis.

I am aware that there is a very active debate on homelessness statistics. Deputies Eoghan Murphy and Eoin Ó Broin are debating the issue all the time. I am not particularly interested in getting involved in that debate. Both figures, 9,000 or 10,000 people, in emergency accommodation represent too many people; there are many more than there used to be and I am not going to pretend otherwise. It is important that we focus on solutions and do not argue over categories and subcategories but if others want to have that debate, they are welcome to have it.

The Minister started the argument.

Spokespeople are also creating plenty of argument. It misses the point, quite frankly. We have asked the CSO to do some work on tracking accurately the number of new homes being built, because that is unclear at the moment. Some people base their figures on ESB connections, which is fairly accurate because it includes new homes and homes that have been off the grid for two years, which is as good as a new home. However, as it can also include things such as outhouses on farms, it is not a perfect statistic, even though it is a good one. Some people use BER certifications, which is also not perfect because one-off housing regularly does not require BER. We have asked the CSO to come up with a reliable set of figures it can stand over when it comes to new home building and we expect it to report on that in the next few months. As for homelessness, we have not asked the CSO to do that but it is a possibility that we could ask that the current figures be suspended and to ask the CSO to produce something more accurate that everyone can stand over. I do not believe anyone disputes statistics produced by the CSO. Statistics from Departments may be disputed, and people rightly dispute those that come from interest groups such as NGOs and others, but nobody disputes the figures from the CSO. It is probably the best organisation to provide these numbers.

Deputy Martin Kenny asked about investment in ports. If one looks at Project Ireland 2040, investment in our ports is specifically mentioned. Our ports are commercial entities, even though they are State-owned. The details are provided on port expansion plans for Dublin, Cork and Shannon-Foynes.

I asked about Rosslare.

Rosslare currently has no development plan in place. We contacted the owner, Irish Rail, specifically to ask if there were any plans to upgrade that port, and unfortunately there are none. We may need to work on that. The fact that it is owned and controlled by Irish Rail is a difficulty because Irish Rail tends to see it as a port that generates revenue for that company, rather than a port that could generate revenue that could then be re-invested in the port itself. The fact that it is part of CIÉ and Irish Rail is not ideal but that remains the position at present.

Seanad Reform

Brendan Howlin

Question:

3. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach his plans for reform of Seanad Éireann. [21238/18]

I have established an implementation group on Seanad reform, having consulted with other party leaders, to consider the Manning report and develop specific proposals to legislate for Seanad reform. The implementation group comprises Members of the Oireachtas with the assistance of outside experts, as appropriate. The group held its first meeting on 9 May 2018 and is due to report back in October.

As for the idea of a committee with 26 politicians on it talking about Seanad reform and the possibility of experts being attached to it as well, I wish all those involved well.

Did the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport nominate himself? Is this a new procedure, whereby Ministers can sit on such committees? What is the purpose of the Minister sitting on the committee? The committee will report, presumably, to the Taoiseach and the Government. Does the Minister not trust what the Government might do with the report? Does he think that it might be binned or shredded and that it might never been seen or does he have particular insights, having been a denizen of the Seanad over many long decades? Is he perhaps out to settle scores? We all heard about a recent episode in the canteen which seemed to be quite colourful and heated in nature, involving a dispute with former allies. Perhaps he has it in for some of the former or current Members of the Seanad. Can the Taoiseach enlighten us on the change in procedures? Does he feel it is helpful that Ministers can now nominate themselves or be nominated to this kind of committee?

The Taoiseach addressed the Seanad earlier this year on the topic of Seanad reform and suggested that Senators from nationalist and unionist communities in the North should be elected. I note the recent by-election resulted in the election of Senator Ian Marshall, who is from the unionist community. He was elected with the support of Sinn Féin and Fine Gael, and will bring a different perspective to that House. Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, who is from east Belfast, brings a more nationalist North of Ireland perspective to the situation. Both of those Senators were elected in the bizarre and archaic fashion used for the election of Seanadóirí, which we all recognise as something that needs to change. The Manning report recommended that the franchise be extended to all citizens and the diaspora.

What are we going to do to make that happen? There is no constitutional impediment to doing so, and the Oireachtas can confer the right to register to vote in Seanad elections to both Irish citizens living in the North and to those holding Irish passports and living abroad. Does the Taoiseach support the recommendations of the Manning report to extend the franchise to citizens in the North and to the diaspora, and will he commit to bringing forward some form of legislation to secure that in the time ahead?

First, it has to be said that when the Fine Gael proposal to abolish the Seanad was defeated, the central reason was the refusal to consider more wide-ranging political reform. It has taken far too long to set up this committee. It is rather bizarre that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, decided to sit on the committee. Some believe it was his last-ditch effort to stop Senator McDowell. I do not know what that is all about, but I think it is unbecoming of him. He needs to focus on his job. He should do something about the second runway in Dublin Airport, the most critical issue in his remit. Meanwhile, he is on every committee, nipping into other ministerial portfolios than his own.

On the reform issue, I put it to the Taoiseach that at the commencement of this Dáil we outlined a series of ambitious reforms for this House. I ask the Taoiseach to reflect on the supports that we are giving the Oireachtas in implementing those reforms. The Parliamentary Budget Office is up and running, but I recall that there was about a year's delay in approving the head of that office, with questions around the level within the public service they were to be accorded and whether they were to be at assistant secretary or deputy secretary general level. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform initially insisted on a principal officer grade for that post. The same concerns apply with the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Adviser. It should be an independent office of note in regard to the quality of the people recruited and the level to which they are recruited.

Dáil and Seanad reform will need resources. I ask the Taoiseach to convene a meeting of the party leaders to reflect on the progress we have made since the commencement of this Dáil. For example, there was an offer of assistance in the drafting of Opposition legislation in order to ensure the final measures passed by the House are of a higher quality. The Taoiseach has justified the Government's blocking of legislation from the Opposition on the grounds that he felt it to be poorly drafted. That would not be an issue if there was more comprehensive assistance available as these offices develop and are strengthened.

The programme for Government also promises to evolve better methods of sharing information from Departments with Deputies. In reality, the sharing of information has become much worse. Briefings which were once common have now nearly stopped. Information is now mainly shared via planted stories in newspapers, rather than any accountable forum. Can the Taoiseach outline the proposals he is bringing forward to implement the commitment to being more open in sharing information?

Finally, I note that the Taoiseach recently lectured Ministers about leaking Cabinet information. In a spectacular U-turn from his practices as a Minister, he has decided this is not to be tolerated. Can he say what steps he is taking to find and punish the leakers?

In regard to the size of the committee, I note that it has a maximum membership of 26 but it only has 22 people nominated to it. It does seem like a lot, and it is a lot, but it is actually not much greater than the number of people sitting around the Cabinet table. It may not be as huge as it seems to people, but it is a large number. The reason for that is twofold. First, every group had to have at least one representative, including the Civil Engagement group, the Independent Alliance and the Social Democrat-Green group. We did not think it was appropriate to leave out any group. Once that was done, there also had to be proportionality. Very big groups like Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin should have more members than very small groups. We then get to the figure of 20-something, whether we like it or not.

It is not unprecedented. The all-party Committee on Future Funding of Domestic Water Services, the all-party Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care and the all-party Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution had similar numbers of members and produced good outcomes in a reasonable time period, so I do not think we should underestimate the capacity of people nominated to that committee to deliver the goods. The Independent Alliance has one member, and that member is indeed the Minister, Deputy Ross. As all members of the Independent Alliance are Ministers, I imagine they had no alternative but to appoint a Minister to represent them on that committee. It is an unusual situation for all members of a group to be Ministers, but that is the situation at the moment.

Regarding Seanad reform, I very much agree with the proposal to have people in the Seanad who represent the diaspora and Irish citizens overseas. That is done to an extent with Senator Billy Lawless, who has been appointed as a Taoiseach's nominee to the Seanad. However, as they have in France, for example, I would like to see people elected from international constituencies, maybe North America, Europe and so on, representing our citizens overseas. I also very much want to see the voice of Northern Ireland represented in our Seanad. When the Free State Seanad was established, part of its original role was to represent unionist voices. Half of the members of the first Free State Seanad were indeed unionist voices, particularly Southern unionists. I definitely think that our Seanad would add to our Parliament if we had more people from Northern Ireland sitting in it. We have two now, or possibly three; I refer to the recently elected Senator Ian Marshall. However, I think we could have more. That would definitely add to our Parliament, and that is something I very much favour.

The Constitution makes all this very complicated, by the way. People may not be aware of this, but the Constitution requires that Seanad elections are carried out by postal vote. A postal vote involving perhaps a 1 million votes in Northern Ireland is not an easy operation. A postal vote involving millions of votes from all over the world - Irish people are now all over the world - is going to be logistically complicated and very expensive. Perhaps it is not even a good idea, but it would require a constitutional change to avoid it. It is also going to require that we develop a whole new register of electors. Not only would we need to register people in Northern Ireland and people all over the world, but our Constitution requires that people elect to vote on a particular panel. Changing that would require a constitutional amendment. It is not good enough that people are registered to vote; they will have to register to vote and opt to be an elector on a certain panel, and I think that is going to be very confusing for people. The panels that exist were invented in 1930s. They derive from a papal encyclical, the name of which I forget, and they probably do not reflect the way modern society breaks down.

This is not going to be a simple reform, for those reasons among others. However, the remit of the committee is not to come up with a new set of proposals. The remit of the committee is to implement the Manning report. This is an implementation group, and I expect that it will help to produce the legislation which we will then put through this House and the other House, allowing the next Seanad or the Seanad after it to be elected according to these new rules. Its terms of reference enable it to come up with alternatives if the committee finds that some of the aspects of the Manning report are impractical.

In terms of resources, the Houses are obviously run by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. I imagine the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has a role in approving. I am not sure how that works, but the Department perhaps has a role in approving particular posts and so on. Perhaps the solution to that is just to give the Oireachtas more autonomy within its own budget to decide at what grade people should be hired. That practice does exist. It is called delegated sanctions.

Perhaps for next year's budget, we could just give the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission its budget, and give it delegated sanction-----

Could we agree to meet on that?

-----to decide whether to have fewer people at a higher grade or more people at a lower grade as it sees fit. Yes, I will certainly do that. I will convene the party leaders over the next couple of weeks to discuss all those reform issues.

Departmental Administrative Arrangements

Brendan Howlin

Question:

4. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach the supports provided by his Department to Ministers of State. [21241/18]

Joan Burton

Question:

5. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Taoiseach the supports his Department provides to Independent Ministers and Deputies who support the Government. [21439/18]

Brendan Howlin

Question:

6. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the supports provided to Independent Ministers and supporters of the Government from his Department. [22707/18]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 6, inclusive, together.

My Department, as outlined in the strategy statement, provides support services for the Taoiseach and the Government, including the independent Members of Government, through the Government secretariat, the parliamentary liaison unit, the programme for Government office and the Cabinet committee structure to ensure that Government business is managed to the highest standards. The chief strategist for the Independent Alliance and the political co-ordinator for the independent Ministers in Government are also based in my Department.

The business of the Government is co-ordinated by the Government secretariat. This includes the preparation of the Cabinet agenda, the circulation of papers and the communication of the Government's decisions to the relevant Ministers and Departments.

The parliamentary liaison unit was established to help ensure that Ministers and Government Deputies are properly informed of new responsibilities and procedures in the Thirty-second Dáil. The unit provides support to Ministers and their Departments on Oireachtas matters with a particular emphasis on assisting Departments with Private Members' business. In performing this function the unit liaises on a regular basis with advisers to the Independent members of Government to ensure they are informed of Oireachtas issues and to assist them in engaging with the new processes arising from Dáil reform. In this regard the parliamentary liaison unit provides detailed information on upcoming matters in the Dáil and Seanad and highlights any new Oireachtas reform issues.

The programme for Government office provides assistance to Government in delivering on its ambitious programme of work through monitoring the implementation of the commitments contained in the programme for Government across all Departments. The office prepares progress reports and an annual report setting out progress made across all of Government in implementing the commitments in the programme. The Cabinet committee system, which is an important part of the machinery of Government and a core part of the work of the Department, provides a whole-of-Government, co-ordinated approach to issues as necessary. The scope of the Cabinet committee system encompasses the Government's national priorities and the challenges Ireland faces in the coming years.

The Government press secretary acts as a spokesperson for the Taoiseach and the Government and he is supported by the press office in his role of co-ordinating the media relations of all Departments. The deputy press secretary is also based in my Department and she is tasked with co-ordinating communications for all the Independents in government. My Department continues to adapt and strengthen these supports to ensure they are fully responsive to the requirements arising from Dáil reform and to support effective minority government arrangements.

The Taoiseach said one intriguing thing there. Does the Minister, Deputy Ross, as the lead Minister with the Independent Alliance get notification and copies of all Cabinet memos and all memos to the Government in advance, as would be the norm with a minority party in government that had a Tánaiste for instance? Can the Taoiseach confirm if he gets advance copies of all the memos, not just the normal notification that Ministers in the Government get?

Second, is the Taoiseach thinking of appointing a new deputy Government Whip and can he elaborate on the deal which was done with Deputy Canney? There are a large number of Ministers of State now. The Taoiseach expanded the number of Ministers of State hugely, almost to Bertie Ahern proportions at the last count. A large number of them now have special advisers, due in part to those who are also attending Government. It is the highest ever in the history of the State. We have four now who do not have advisers, so why do some Ministers of State get advisers and others do not? For instance, the Ministers of State, Deputies Jim Daly, D'Arcy, McEntee, Moran and Halligan, all have advisers, so that would be a cost of roughly €500,000 a year to taxpayers. That is on top of the four Ministers of State who attend Cabinet and their advisers would similarly cost probably another €500,000.

Does the Department of the Taoiseach provide supports to Deputies Harty and Lowry? Deputy Lowry in particular always seems to be very well informed of what is happening in terms of Cabinet and Cabinet decisions.

I am particularly interested in the question as it relates to the supports provided by the Taoiseach's Department to Ministers of State. The unseemly row between the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, and Deputy Canney did not reflect well on the Government. The image of two individuals tossing a coin at the commencement of the Government to decide who would be Minister of State for one year and who would be Minister of State for the next year and then having a row as to who would be Minister of State for the third year did not reflect well on the Government and should never have been part of the process of appointing Ministers of State in my view. The Taoiseach might outline what supports were provided by him to resolve that dispute. He might also outline if the role of the Minister, Deputy Ross, extends to the Rural Alliance and others because it is very noticeable from time to time in different votes that there are surprising outcomes in terms of support levels. The suspicion remains that deals are being done behind the scenes or accommodations are being arrived at that are not known in the public domain.

I have a later question, No. 11, which does not come within the compass of this reply, but does the Minister, Deputy Ross, have an unofficial role in reaching out to some Independents beyond his own immediate group and are certain people in the know? It is accepted that Deputy Lowry is. I agree with Deputy Burton, there is no doubt but that Deputy Lowry is in the loop in terms of Government actions, proposals and announcements and he gets tipped off regularly in advance of other Deputies in Tipperary. That is as a result of a mental telepathy between the Government and Deputy Lowry. I accept what both sides have said that there is no arrangement whatsoever but that they work on a telepathic basis and they have an intuitive understanding that is reciprocated on a regular basis.

I am interested in Deputy Micheál Martin's observation on the issue of support for Government and people getting tipped off. Perhaps he did not look for enough when he was doing the deal.

Sinn Féin is clearly doing very well at the moment.

The programme for Government contains a number of commitments on political reform. This includes Ministers of State playing a more substantive role in policy formation, re-examination of their function within departmental structures and their relationship with Cabinet Ministers. This has not happened to my knowledge but the Taoiseach might enlighten us on what work is happening in this respect. The Department of the Taoiseach has four Ministers of State attached to it. The Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, works as Government Whip and the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, is in European affairs. I ask the Taoiseach, in terms of the responsibilities within the Department of the Taoiseach as opposed to their role in other Departments, what the Ministers of State, Deputies Kehoe and Breen, undertake that is specific to the Department of the Taoiseach?

The current practice is that all Ministers get advance copies of memos. They are put on eCabinet or provided in writing in advance. The exception is if a memo is secret and on occasion there are secret memos or a memo that is commercially sensitive, for example, an IDA grant or contract that is brought to the table or brought underarm as people describe it. That is done on a case-by-case basis. No Minister in the Cabinet has any special entitlement to see things early in a way that would happen in a coalition Government with the leader of the other party. That is not the arrangement. All Ministers get all memos with the exception of a small number that are secret or commercial and a decision is made on a case-by-case basis as to which Ministers may need advance notice and that depends on their individual briefs and responsibilities.

As Deputy Canney has resigned as Government assistant Whip, I will appoint a replacement in early course. I just have not had a chance to think about that as of yet.

Deputy Mattie McGrath?

In the meantime, the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, is taking on the role of de-facto Whip of the Independent Alliance and he is now representing the Independent Alliance on the Business Committee. Previously that function had been carried out by Deputy Canney. There is no written or formal agreement with Deputy Canney but he is continuing to support the Government and we assist him as best we can on a case-by-case basis, as is the case with other Independent Members who support the Government.

When it comes to advisers for Ministers of State, that is also done on a case-by-case basis. The Minister of State has to make a request. That request is then considered by me and the Minister for Finance and is approved, if warranted. In some cases, Ministers of State are managing very large budgets. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, has a budget of over €1 billion, for example. People can see the level of demand that is on his time. While it gets a lot of criticism, in general the adviser system works well in the Government and it is important to have that intermediary between Ministers and the Civil Service for lots of different reasons.

Deputy Harty is assisted by the Government through the political co-ordinator of the Independent Ministers, that is, Deputies Naughten and Zappone. Deputy Harty is part of that group and-----

Is he not in the Rural Alliance?

He is. He has a relationship with the Ministers, Deputies Naughten and Zappone-----

That explains a lot so.

-----as part of that arrangement.

Is that how the Government roped in the Rural Alliance then? Deputy Mattie McGrath denies anything like that.

I do not think anybody could describe the members of that group as having been roped into the Government. They almost all vote against us. They are Independents and they take different views on things.

It is a very effective conduit, clearly, from the Rural Alliance to the heart of the Government.

It is important there would always be lines of communication between the Government and different groups in the Parliament. As the Deputy knows, there is a very strong line of communication between the Government and Fianna Fáil.

I do not disagree but there is a contrast between the rhetoric we hear and the reality behind the scenes. It is very interesting.

The Minister of State with responsibility for defence, Deputy Kehoe, has a role in my Department. I have delegated almost all functions relating to defence to him. The role of the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, within the Department relates to data protection.

Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.
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