Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What is definitely required, however, is some sort of clear guidance for committees on what can and cannot happen. I am aware that Deputy O'Dowd very ably chaired the hearings on the FAI. There was considerable public interest in that. The hearings made change happen. It shows the power of Oireachtas committees, that people can actually be held to account and that change can be made to happen. At the same time, I confess that I believe the previous Committee of Public Accounts did treat some witnesses very badly a few years ago. Notwithstanding all the issues around Ms Kerins' salary, I believe she was badly treated by the previous Committee of Public Accounts. There was one referendum I voted for that I am glad got defeated, that is, the one that would have given Parliament the power to carry out Oireachtas inquiries and make findings of fact against individuals.

I voted for that and I was a member of the Government which proposed it. I am glad the people, in their wisdom, rejected it. Ultimately, we are politicians, we need votes to stay in our jobs and we are driven by news cycles. If one is going to act in a judicial way and make judgments on individuals, one must do it in a fair way. One must listen to all the evidence, not comment until one has heard all the evidence and then come to conclusions in a judicious way that should not in any way affect how the public sees one.

This was one of those occasions when the people were right. We should maintain that separation between the Judiciary, which can make findings of fact and findings against individuals, and politicians, who probably should not go into that space. That is not to say we cannot have robust committees that hold organisations to account and shine light into dark places. They have done that very well in recent times.

Deputy Curran made some very valid points on the issue of poverty, which is real in Ireland where there are very disadvantaged communities. He was an effective Minister of State in that area and I remember him working in that role. Long-term unemployment is down to 1.9%. It is probably as low as it has ever been. However, that masks a different reality, which is what we call jobless households where nobody in the house is in paid employment. I will not us the word "works" because often people work in their homes as carers. We have an action plan to deal with that and it is being driven by the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty. It can make a big difference if, through a combination of incentives and disincentives, we can encourage those households, or at least one person in those households, to join the workforce.

I want to have a rethink about the community enhancement scheme and the RAPID programme. I started to think about this matter the other day. We all know what is being done in the north-east inner city and how it has been successful so far. People would like to have that model replicated in their areas but that is not possible. One could not find the resources to do it in all areas. I thought that perhaps we should designate ten or 20 areas of profound deprivation around the State and do something similar, but then it occurred to me that we had done that previously and called it RAPID. I had in mind places in Deputy O'Dowd's constituency, Corduff in my constituency and Ronanstown in Deputy Curran's constituency. We can all think of such places. We would very quickly end up reinventing RAPID. I am giving some thought to that and I am going to talk to Mr. Fraser - he knows a great deal about the NEC as well - in order to see if we can relaunch something that would be targeted at a small number of disadvantaged areas based on objective criteria. Everyone will want his or her parish included but that will not work. I am giving the matter some thought.