Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
Question:1 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs last met. [19095/05]
View answerTuesday, 28 June 2005
Questions (1, 2, 3)
Pat Rabbitte
Question:2 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs last met; and when the next meeting is due to be held. [20741/05]
View answer
Trevor Sargent
Question:3 Mr. Sargent asked the Taoiseach when the last meeting of the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs took place. [22337/05]
View answerOral answers (37 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1, 2 and 3 together.
The Cabinet committee on social inclusion last met on 27 April 2005. The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for tomorrow, 29 June.
Has the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs reviewed the report of the national drugs strategy mid-term review?
That issue does not arise out of this very specific statistical question. There is no space for supplementary questions.
Is the Ceann Comhairle going to close us down completely?
There are questions on Northern Ireland, so the Deputy should not take up time on irrelevant questions
I appreciate the importance of that. Nevertheless I am trying to establish whether the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs has addressed the report of the national drugs strategy mid-term review. It is a very straightforward question and I thought it would have been accommodated. It is not outside the scope of the question.
It is definitely outside the scope and if the Deputy wants information in this regard he should submit a question to the appropriate line Minister. It is not appropriate to have a debate on what was discussed or on any particular issue which is the not the responsibility of the Department of the Taoiseach.
Is the Taoiseach in a position to outline whether the committee has or will address the report? I will leave it at that because I have no intention to retrace this line of argument. Unfortunately, there is no end to it.
The answer to the question is yes, the committee is addressing that issue.
Questions like these about Cabinet sub-committee meetings have been the traditional method used to permit the head of Government to answer broad questions such as those posed by Deputy Ó Caoláin. The Ceann Comhairle has constantly, persistently and consistently narrowed the scope of questions that this House might legitimately put to the Taoiseach to such a point that it is not worth our while standing up to ask a question anymore. Therefore, I do not propose to ask a question.
I agree with the Deputy. I believe that these questions, which are statistical, should not be posed for oral answer.
They are not statistical questions. That cliché has come into parliamentary exchanges because of questions habitually posed under the rubric of the Central Statistics Office and other statistical matters. A question about drug abuse and a Cabinet meeting is not statistical in nature.
Deputy Rabbitte's question is as follows: "To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs last met; and when the next meeting will be held".
That question is in line with parliamentary convention and aims to ascertain if, arising from the meeting, any decisions were reached or general policy announcements are to be made by the Taoiseach. He is the head of the Government.
The Deputy is aware that policy questions should be addressed to the line Minister. The Chair does not want to be involved in this type of discussion every day that questions such as these are posed.
If we accept that the position is so, what is the point in posing a question to the Taoiseach?
I agree with the Deputy about putting down a question of this nature for oral answer——
Could the Ceann Comhairle suggest, on the matter of drugs policy that effects so many people in our communities, how we might draft an appropriate question?
Deputy, you are missing the point.
I am not missing the point. You do not want the Taoiseach to answer——
The question should be drafted for the line Minister——
You want to narrow the scope of the questions that we can put to the Taoiseach.
The Chair has ruled on the matter in accordance with precedent. Questions on policy are addressed to the line Minister.
I hope the Ceann Comhairle will consider that my question is in order. To take 45 minutes to ask the Taoiseach when the committee last met is not a good use of parliamentary time. The limitations on party leaders or anyone else asking the Taoiseach a question are so strict that we are forced to ask questions about when the committee last met. I ask the Ceann Comhairle to bear in mind that we are attempting to address important issues here, not simply fill a calendar or inquire about diary entries. Will the Chair countenance the question that I propose to ask, namely, whether the Taoiseach accepts that the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs should meet more frequently, given that there is growing inequality in the pathways to social inclusion? CORI published a report last month which clearly indicates that one quarter of Irish children and over one fifth of Irish people are at risk of poverty.
The Deputy has made his point.
I also ask about equality as it relates to people with disabilities because 16% of the complaints made to the Equality Authority were from people with disability. Such facts indicate that the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs needs to meet more regularly and needs to be more public and more effective in responding to these growing problems.
The committee meets on a monthly basis. I do not know if this is helpful to Deputies, but if direct questions are posed about any of these issues, the Ministers who report to the committee would be only too glad to answer them. When I was on the other side of the House and Deputy Rabbitte was on this side, he used to take part of the time allocated to Taoiseach's questions to answer these types of questions and I posed questions directly to him. Unfortunately, that does not happen now and if Deputies really want answers, they should revert to the old system, which worked very well.
It worked well because Deputy Rabbitte always gave full information in response to questions.
I could do so too because I attend the committee meetings, but that is not the point. Procedurally that is how it should be operated.
The Taoiseach's Government changed that procedure.
There has been no change. It can still be done and there is no problem in doing so.
In view of today's report on the national survey of drug-related suicides and the significant increase which has taken place in recent years, and given that serious drug abuse is a feature of national life rather than of urban life——
The Deputy is straying into policy which is a matter for the line Minister.
——will the Taoiseach consider making the Minister of State with responsibility for drugs strategy and housing solely responsible for drugs strategy because of the extent of the problem?
The Minister of State is responsible for all actions in the drugs area. He is also responsible for housing because in many of these areas there is a cross-link between the difficulties and problems. Research shows that these areas——
It is in health and so on.
The health aspect is different, being concerned with treatment centres. I do not think it would be a good idea for the Minister of State to take on the additional responsibility of the health aspect.