John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think the Chairman is spot on - that is the issue. Obviously, Ms McLaughlin was not at the meeting I attended at the Department during the week. It was acknowledged then that no one is spearheading this in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Finance, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Taking those five Departments, it was felt that someone needed to spearhead this matter. There was an acknowledgement that it needed to happen right now and that it would happen.

The two critical Departments are the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. I have some faith that the Government has now acknowledged that there was a dearth of leadership when it came to the issue internally in Government. The interconnectivity between Departments was very poor when it came to thinking about issues that everybody had a stake in but no one was specifically tasked with. The line Ministry was the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform but that has changed in the last year. There has been an indication that this is going to improve.