Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Allow me to finish please. I am trying to get a sense as to the interdepartmental workings on this issue. I made a charge at the previous meeting. What has happened over recent months is that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications have directed this committee, and individual members through responses to parliamentary questions, to the Minister of State's Department for discussion. Yet when the Minister of State's Department comes before the committee and is asked specific questions, the Minister of State directs us back to the other Departments. I want to get a sense of what is at play at ministerial level. Is there an agreement between Ministers that if any questions are asked on the extraction of horticultural peat the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will respond to them? Has that been agreed at ministerial level?