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Interdepartmental Committees.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 May 2004

Thursday, 20 May 2004

Questions (103)

John Bruton

Question:

103 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance if he will list the number of meetings in the past year of each interdepartmental committee or body on which his Department is represented; the frequency and location of its meetings; and where it is intended those meetings will take place after decentralisation. [15008/04]

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Written answers

As indicated in a reply to a previous parliamentary question, reference number 30860/03, officials of my Department are currently members of some 170 interdepartmental committees, working groups or bodies.

It is not possible to be definitive at this time about the post-decentralisation position on the number of such committees and the frequency and location of their meetings. These are matters that will only emerge in due course. These meetings are currently held mainly in Dublin and while the frequency of meetings varies, one meeting per month per committee would be a reasonable average at present. After decentralisation, the location and frequency of meetings will necessarily take account of the location of the Departments involved.

In that context, I direct the Deputy's attention to paragraph 3.20 of the report of the decentralisation implementation group, dated 31 March 2004, which specifically addresses the issue of cross-organisational collaboration. As the group points out, there are steps that can be taken to minimise the amount of travel that would otherwise arise without necessarily weakening cross-departmental collaboration. I expect decentralisation to act as a catalyst for this type of change.

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