Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 June 2016
260. Deputy Lisa Chambers asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of occasions in each of the years from 2011 to 2016 to date in which the powers vested in him or any other Minister in his Department were exercised without any express act of delegation by departmental officials of certain seniority and responsibility, as per the Carltona doctrine. [17463/16]
View answerThe Public Service Management Act 1997 provides for the devolution of authority and responsibility within Government Departments from Ministers to their Officials. The Act also provides a statutory framework for the assignment of specific functions for which the Secretary General is responsible, to appropriate officers within Departments, with ultimate accountability resting with the Secretary General for the performance of those functions. The Act reaffirmed that, notwithstanding any delegation of functions of civil servants under the Act, a Minister of the Government is in charge of his/her Department and is responsible for the administration of that Department in accordance with the Constitution and the Ministers and Secretaries Act. This assignment for my Department is set out in our Corporate Governance Framework, which is available on the Department’s website at : http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/aboutus/aboutthedepartment/corporategovernance/DAFMCorporateGovernance070616.pdf
The specific information requested by the Deputy is not maintained by my Department due to the range and volume of occasions when powers vested in me are exercised by my officials under these arrangements.
