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

The point I am making is that going down through this work and the changes that might be spoken about there are many more parties involved than just the Minister and the Secretary General. Many other strands come together to work in the interest of the Department. That is the only point I am making on that.

Is there a need for a Secretary General and a Department that would be in control of the overall performance of Secretaries General? Therefore, there would be a boss, one Secretary General, who would deal with complaints and other stuff that normally arises in the management of a big entity like the State because that is not the case today. A Secretary General appeared before this committee and explained that there really is no boss because each Department is structured in such a way that the boss is the Secretary General or the Minister, depending on what is going on. However, there is no layer above Secretaries General to pull them in line should they depart for any reason.