Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the learnings that I mentioned among which accountability from the centre is crucial. If one has 15 distinct Departments and they all are working to their own priorities and within their own silos the needed change will not be achieved unless one has not only a verbal commitment to deliver but it also becomes a priority within that silo

When things do not work as intended, there will not be quick adaptation and responsiveness within the different sections of government. Having the central authority of the Taoiseach overseeing these targets and the reporting on them on a quarterly basis will ensure this becomes a top priority. That was a feature of the action plan we had.

The other very important element is the capacity to continually adapt to the experience, new suggestions and finding where the boot pinches, if one likes, in trying to achieve the change. We must carry people with us. It cannot all be about imposing change on people. We must talk to people, understand and work with them in order to make changes.

The scale of this challenge is different. In trying to deliver employment growth everyone started with a shared objective. In this area there will be more of a tendency for people to ask why someone else is not making more of an effort. One of the challenges is to ensure what we will ask of different segments of the community is fair and balanced. That is a challenge on a scale that is different from what we experienced with the Action Plan for Jobs. In recognising the difference we have put much more legislative infrastructure behind this. We recognise the role of the committee as being really powerful and the need for the accountability of individual Ministers to the committee. While we are building on the previous model, we are adapting it in the light of the work of the committee and the scale of the challenges we are seeking to meet.