Vol. 526 No. 1
1 Mrs. Owen asked the Taoiseach the committees headed up by his Department which involve other Departments of State; the Ministers involved in these committees; the number of times each of these committees meets; if there is a time limit on the existence and work of each of these committees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20108/00]
There are 12 committees or groups in existence in my Department which involve other Departments of State. A senior officials group on European affairs has been established to support the work of the Cabinet committee on European affairs. It comprises senior officials of key Departments with a policy role in EU issues. The role of the group is to monitor major EU issues and prepare the agenda and the policy papers required for consideration by the Cabinet committee on European affairs. The senior officials group has met eight times since the beginning of the year. The committee will continue to meet as necessary.
The interdepartmental group on the implementation of the Government's action plan for the information society is headed by my Department. This group is chaired by an assistant secretary and representation on the group is at assistant secretary level. The function of the group is to progress and co-ordinate the implementation of the Government's action plan for the information society. The group meets every few months and will be in existence for the duration of the action plan. There is no ministerial involvement in the committee.
The interdepartmental group on access has been established to devise a strategy to implement the recommendations of the report IT Access for All published by the Information Society Commission. The group is chaired by an assistant principal and representation is mainly at that level. The group meets as required and will continue to operate until an access strategy has been devised for consideration by Government. The last meeting was held in June. There is no ministerial involvement in the committee.
The interdepartmental strategy group on employment and unemployment is comprised exclusively of officials from relevant Departments and FÁS. On average, the group meets every three months. It is intended that it will continue in existence for at least the duration of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
The liaison committee on MediaLab Europe and Digital Media District Limited is comprised of representatives from relevant Departments and State agencies. To date, the committee has held two meetings, the last one being held on 5 November. It is envisaged that the committee will continue in existence until MLE and the digital media village have been developed in line with the Government's policy.
The IFSC clearing house group is chaired by my Department with representatives of the financial services industry, together with representatives of the Departments of Finance, Public Enterprise and Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. The group generally meets every two months. There is no time limit on the existence of the group.
The IFSC public sector group is chaired by a representative of my Department. It includes representatives of the Departments of Finance, Public Enterprise, Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Education and Science, the Environment and Local Government, the Marine and Natural Resources and the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. There are also representatives of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, the Central Bank and IDA Ireland. The group meets on average every three months. There is no time limit on the existence of the group.
The cross-departmental team on infrastructural development and public private partnership is led by my Department, with representatives of the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Finance, Public Enterprise, the Environment and Local Government, Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Office of the Attorney General. The general purpose of the committee is to oversee the delivery of key infrastructure in the context of the national development plan. It has met on 11 occasions to date. Meetings of the committee and team are usually held every four to six weeks and the last meeting was held on 10 October. There is no time limit on the life of the Cabinet sub-committee or the cross-departmental team.
A project steering group which oversees the development of the Sports Campus Ireland project is chaired by my Department. The project is funded from my Department's Vote for this year but, now that it is off the ground, responsibility will be transferred to the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation from 2001. The group comprises officials from my Department, the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, the Department of Finance, the Office of Public Works and Campus and Stadium Ireland Development limited. There is no ministerial involvement in the project steering group. The steering group first met on 25 September and will remain in existence for the duration of the Sports Campus Ireland project, which is due to be completed in 2005.
The SMI implementation group was established by the Government in July 1997 with a mandate to drive the reform process forward within the Civil Service. The group is chaired by Mr. Dermot McCarthy, Secretary General to the Government and comprises the secretaries general of all Departments. The group meets on a monthly basis; the last meeting was held on 4 October 2000. There is no ministerial involvement in the group and there is no time limit on the existence of the group.
The steering committee on the OECD review was set up to oversee participation in the OECD country review of regulatory reform. This steering committee is chaired by an assistant secretary from my Department. It is comprised exclusively of officials from relevant Departments and Forfás. There is no ministerial involvement in the committee. It has met eight times and will finish its work at the end of the review process which is expected to be in March 2001.
A central review mechanism has been established in accordance with the monitoring arrangements set out in section 5.3 of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. Its task is "to identify the appropriate arrangements to oversee the implementation of the four Operational Frameworks in the Agreement, to assess progress, and to address the strategic issues arising in order to review and monitor the operation of the Programme". It comprises representatives from all the relevant Departments as well as the social partners. The group meets once a quarter and the last meeting was held at the end of July. There is no ministerial involvement but I chair one meeting in the year which is also attended by the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance. The central review mechanism will remain in place until the PPF expires at the end of 2002.
I was waiting for the Taoiseach to read out the whole list. How many such committees existed during the last Administration? Is it a new development to have that number of committees?
Is the committee on social inclusion, to which the Taoiseach did not refer, a Cabinet sub-committee or a committee chaired by his Department? How often has it met? Why has it taken three years to recognise the difficulties in society regarding ‘out-of-control' children, which I understand is one of the main areas with which that committee was set up to deal?
I listed all of the groups. There are no other groups of officials. There are 12 such groups. A number of these such as the employment and unemployment group, the clearing house group and the public sector group would have been in existence previously in one form or another, although some of them may be slightly different in size or have changed somewhat. The SMI implementation group is in existence since July 1997. The Sports Campus Ireland project steering group is a new group.
The social inclusion group is a Cabinet sub-committee which I chair. It includes representatives of the Ministers for Education and Science, Health and Children, Justice, Equality and Law Reform, and Finance. It deals with the issue of social inclusion in the areas of education, justice and the environment. It has been responsible for a number of the initiatives over the past three years in a number of areas of exclusion.
Could the Taoiseach confirm that the projects committee, which is dealing with Sports Campus Ireland, was set up under his auspices in order that he could make the announcement about this project and now that it has run into the difficulties and the large cost overruns and he finds he cannot proceed with this project, he is transferring it to the hapless Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Deputy McDaid, who will take the flak? Why was it set up under the Taoiseach's Department? Was it solely because the Taoiseach would receive the public relations advantage from the announcement?
McDaid gets "McDumped".
The Sport Campus Ireland company has been set up and the national support is in place for the project. The project received unanimous support in the House. The work is up and running and the site now exists. The meetings with the local residents and all those issues have moved on. It is just a matter of moving on. The building of the first stage is out to tender and, hopefully, that will start early in the new year.
The Taoiseach has not answered my question. Why has he moved responsibility for this from his Department? Does he foresee difficulties down the road and does not want to be left carrying the can? I would like an answer to that. The Taoiseach has not said why it started under his auspices but is not staying there given that it is being chaired by a former Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach.
I would also like to ask the Taoiseach about the central review mechanism group responsible for identifying the 25 areas of urban and rural deprivation, which has been promised by him many times. When will those areas be identified and under which of these many committees is that work being done?
To answer the Deputy more directly, the work over the last 18 months or so has been to get Campus Ireland up and running, to get the project in place, to get support for it at Government, to get the funding mechanisms in place, to locate a suitable site, to get the feasibility study completed and to get all the other aspects in place. That is now done. A board with its own staff and offices has been set up in Blanchardstown. The first phase, the aquatic centre, which has to be built in time for the Special Olympics, is out to tender. The other phases will move forward next year and thereafter. The preparatory work has been completed and all the arguments have been made. We tend to argue about projects which, years later, everyone agrees are great. I have been around so long that I heard all the things about the Royal Hospital and the Financial Services Centre, which was going to be a brass plate, and yet people were queuing up to be at the opening. It is the same old story. That has moved on.
On the 25 areas, that is being done in conjunction with the social partnership. I am subject to correction on this and will inform Deputies if I am wrong but I understand they are taking the 25 areas which are most economically deprived, based on statistical facts. They will not get into any discussions. Whichever areas emerge as the most deprived from that review based on statistical, economic and social factors, they will take those areas. I think they probably have done that but I will check that for the Deputy.
Is the Taoiseach saying he has no personal involvement in the preparation of that list of 25 areas? Is it being done under the auspices of his Department or the social partnership with a hands off approach being taken by the Taoiseach?
The memorandum certainly came before the Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion and the decision was that rather than have any argument about what areas should be taken, because it came from a suggestion in the PPF the 25 most deprived areas should be the ones allocated. I think they have done that but I will check it for the Deputy.
Who are they?
The social partnership process. They were taking it from the statistical facts on what were the most deprived areas based on long-term unemployment and social disadvantage. I could name about 15 of those areas. Certainly, they were being taken from socio-economic statistics. Whatever came out of that survey were taken.
They would not be constituencies like Wicklow, Kerry South or places like that.
Definitely not.
I think Deputy Owen had a reasonable question to which she did not get an answer which was, why was it the Taoiseach and not the Minister responsible, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation. The Taoiseach said someone had to get the project up and running, find the site and approve the planning permission. Is the Taoiseach implying that he could not leave that type of work to the Minister, a member of the Cabinet and someone whose job—
Give it to Mary O'Rourke.
—it is to do that kind of thing? Is that what the Taoiseach is saying? It is worthy of an answer. I know, no more than myself, he is not very enthusiastic about it. Maybe that is the reason.
The Deputy will know this is a major national project. In Governments in which we have been involved, we have found that to get a major and successful project, such as the Financial Services Centre and Temple Bar, which are major national projects and are massively successful to the benefit of the country, up and running and done quickly, a co-ordinating role for the Taoiseach is useful. Once again, that has proved to be very effective.
Is the Taoiseach able to tell us any more about the status and progress to date of the interdepartmental committee on issues arising from the operation of Sellafield? Is that something in which the Taoiseach would take a direct personal interest given that it is a big international issue?
It is not under my Department, it is under the Department of the Environment and Local Government.
Is the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Deputy McDaid, happy to take over this project and to take it from here? Will he have to defer to the Taoiseach every other day? The Minister, Deputy McDaid, is very welcome.
He has arrived for the second half.
I was in London, Deputy.
We have all been in London.
It does not augur well in terms of the confidence the public will have for his Ministers if each time something of major significance like this has to done, the Taoiseach has to start the project and when he feels it is half cooked, he hands it on to a Minister.
Half baked.
Half baked. Thank you, that is a better word. When the Taoiseach feels the project is half baked, has bled every bit of publicity out of it and has had many photocalls, he will hand it, like some poisoned chalice, to his hapless Minister whoever it may be on the day. The Taoiseach has not explained, other than to say it needed his hand, why it has been moved given that the committee organising it is chaired by a former Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach. Will the Minister, Deputy McDaid, perhaps change that chair so that it will be someone who has an association with the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation? The Taoiseach is shirking the question.
I thank the Deputy for her huge interest in sport. It is the first time I have seen her display that interest in all my years here.
The Taoiseach should see her in her camogie outfit.
The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation has been answering questions here for the last 12 months on sporting issues relating to Campus Ireland. He continued to pursue this. If the Deputy wants to know the amount of progress, we have gone through the feasibility study, the development phase, we got the site, which was an enormous task—
The site was owned by the State.
The site was not there in the first place, it had to be located.
The Taoiseach got a site – big deal.
It was totally under-utilised. It is now moving ahead extremely successfully with excellent co-ordination. The Minister, Deputy McDaid, will move ahead with this project. This project will prove to be so useful. Deputy Bruton and his colleagues will be proved wrong here as they were when they said the Financial Services Centre would be a brass plate operation with no value, that Temple Bar should have been a rail station and that we should have knocked down half of Dublin for it. That was their policy. Thankfully, nobody listened to the Deputy. It was successfully co-ordinated by the Department of the Taoiseach.
I call Question No. 2.
The docklands project was pioneered by former Minister of State, Fergus O'Brien, and the late John Boland, as a matter of fact.
Will the Taoiseach deal with Question No. 2?
He did urban renewal by the way, not the Financial Services Centre.
And the docklands.
He was an excellent person. He did not do the Financial Services Centre.
We are on Question No. 2 now.
