Mr. Martin Fraser:

The Deputy mentioned core functions and changes since the new Government took office. Most of the core functions are unaltered because our core function is to provide a private office and protocol service to Cabinet secretariat, as well as maintaining relations with Áras an Uachtaráin. This is the work of institutions of State, taking in the Oireachtas and Whip's Office. They are the same under all governments and they are effectively described as constitutional functions. That may be the best approximation of what they are.

Every time the Government or Taoiseach changes, there are different emphases and sometimes there are big changes.

If the Deputy looks at the list on page 5, the first three are standing functions which we will always have. The office of the Tánaiste is a small office with two or three staff from within our existing resources. It is in the Taoiseach's Department. Previously it was an office of the Tánaiste which was separate. This is a very small office. The Tánaiste's special advisers are also physically located in Government Buildings, although they assign somebody to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Government Press Office has always been part of our duties.

The next point is all the Taoiseach's duties, and we help him. Those duties are as they always were, except that the European Council load is much bigger now because the Department of the Taoiseach has full responsibility for EU affairs. The EU division of the Government is now in our Department rather than the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. That brings with it an enhanced capacity to support a Taoiseach of the day at the European Council and also a wider range of responsibilities at lower levels of administration and general co-ordination of EU matters.

Each Government sets up its own Cabinet committees and each Government chooses its own topics and way of doing business, but the secretariat's work or the toolkit is the same.

The programme for Government office is a new initiative. Again, that is a small group of two or three people who are charged with monitoring implementation of the programme for Government. They brief the Taoiseach and talk to Departments to try to get things done and iron out any problems. They also help to draft the annual reports. The Government has published two such reports during this Administration.

The next point, briefing advice for the Taoiseach, is obviously part of our core functions. The next point is the Constitutional Convention which was established by the Government under our Department. We were very much involved in setting that up. A couple of staff from our Department have been transferred to it. It is an independent organisation chaired by Tom Arnold. In fact, one of the staff from the Oireachtas is there as well. There are three or four staff, which is a small number, but it is a quite effective body.

With regard to the reference to the abolition of the Seanad, during this Administration the Department has been responsible for the fiscal treaty referendum and it is now responsible for the Seanad referendum. It comes under our overall responsibility as a Department, as opposed to the wider Government.

The EU function has changed as I outlined. It is bigger and we are more centrally involved in all aspects of EU policy.

The last point is corporate affairs, which is a standard service that all Departments have. There have been some additions and some subtractions. The big change was that public service reform was transferred in its entirety to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. While we have some involvement in most aspects of Government, we are not as directly involved in the public service reform agenda or in the industrial relations agenda as we would have been in the past. Obviously we work with our colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, but they have the main responsibility there. That has taken a great deal of work out of the Department and over 20 people left on foot of that change. Social partnership, as it was known, is no longer done in the way it was previously. That is also a big change.

That is a summary of the changes.