asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state what committees have been set up in relation in any way to his Department for the purpose of making recommendations or helping in post-emergency development work intended to increase production and employment; the date the committees were set up; the names and qualifications of their members, and the dates and matters on which any reports or recommendations have been received; and whether and when it is intended to publish these reports or recommendations, and if it is not intended to publish them, the reason for not doing so.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Departmental Committees.
The terms of the Deputy's question are so general that it is difficult to frame a precise and comprehensive reply. For instance, when he asks what committees have been set up in relation in any way to my Department for the purpose of making recommendations or helping in post-emergency development work, the question at once arises as to precisely what type of body he intends to designate by the use of the word "committee" in this connection. Would it, for instance, cover such a body as that which conducted an inquiry into Dublin housing or exclude it? Would it include the close liaison arrangements which exist between the turf section of my Department and the corresponding section of the Department of Supplies and the Turf Development Board, the officers of which are in such close contact that they might be described as a committee? There is a very close liaison, and arrangements for permanent consultation and discussion exist between the officers in the special employment schemes office and in the roads and public health sections of my Department. These discussions relate to grants for works which have as one of their objectives an increase in production by providing better road facilities for the agricultural population and to provide employment. Would it cover these? A further example is the body which consists of representatives of the special employment schemes office, representatives of my Department and representatives of the Department of Industry and Commerce, which has been considering problems arising out of the present methods of relieving unemployment.
In connection with our new road programme, there have been consultations between my Department and the individual officers in charge of the county engineering services, and conferences of the county engineers, as a body, have been organised at which the problems arising out of our road development programme have been discussed with the appropriate officers of my Department. Of course the primary purpose of the new road programme is, by providing better transport facilities, to secure an increase in production and thereby a permanent increase in general employment. The mere execution of the road programme itself will provide a considerable amount of employment. In this case, it might be said that there were not one, but several committees which might be covered by the Deputy's question.
The second point of difficulty in dealing with the question arises from the fact that the Deputy wants me to name bodies, committees or commissions, or whatever they may be,
"set up in relation in any way to my Department for the purpose of making recommendations or helping in post-emergency development work".
To answer this difficulty we have immediately to put to ourselves the question as to whether the Deputy would put any practical limit to this extremely far-reaching range of relationships.
I mention these matters to show the difficulty of traversing in an oral reply the whole subject matter of the Deputy's question. To try to do so would involve an undue trespass upon the period allocated for Question Time. I may, however, refer the Deputy to the information which has been so frequently given to the Dáil by the Taoiseach as to the activities of the economic sub-committee of the Cabinet, and the new branch which has been set up in the Department of Industry and Commerce for the co-ordination of constructional schemes, etc. The statements made by the Taoiseach on these matters give all the information which might reasonably be required.
Do I understand from the Minister that the committees dealing with housing, turf and employment schemes are the only bodies that can be regarded as committees bearing on the question of post-emergency development work for the increasing of production and employment?
I have nothing to add to the very comprehensive reply I have given.
I hear a hoarse protest from the Government Benches at the use of the word "Cabinet" by the Minister.