John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the different committees we have in these Houses to make a point to the Minister of State. Last night, at another meeting, I raised with the Taoiseach the need to have someone as the head of civil servants. The point was made yesterday by the Secretary General, Martin Fraser, and I am hopeful the Taoiseach might comment on that. At yesterday's meeting, the Taoiseach may have misunderstood me as I was not talking generally about civil servants. Rather, I was talking specifically about the Secretaries General in terms of their appearances before committees. That needs to be strengthened in the context of the work that committees do to ensure that we achieve the type of transparency and accountability that are required. The Taoiseach, as the Head of Government, should reinforce that point with the Secretaries General of the different Departments to assist the committees in their work.

The Minister of State is going through the Estimates with the committee because we could not find a date to accommodate the Taoiseach. It is most unusual that the Taoiseach would not be present for the presentation of his Department's Estimates. I hope his absence today will not develop into practice in future because people look for transparency and accountability. These meetings have always been good exchanges in the past, including when the committee met the previous Taoiseach and current Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, his predecessor as Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and those who went before them. They appeared before the committee to explain the figures in detail.

The Minister of State has to deal with a number of questions by way of providing further information. I ask him to do that as efficiently as he can.