Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

In the context of the review of the implementation of An Agreed Programme for Government, will the Taoiseach consider the increasing outsourcing of responsibility to other agencies? As elected Members of Dáil Éireann, we cannot ask about these agencies on the floor of the Dáil. I received a number of letters today from your good self, a Cheann Comhairle, rejecting questions I tabled for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on crucial issues concerning the Environmental Protection Agency and its conduct of a serious pollution issue for farmers near Askeaton. If we wish to put questions to the Taoiseach, you repeatedly direct us to the line Minister. However, when we put crucial issues to the line Minister that should be his responsibility, we are told that he has no such responsibility to the Dáil. I am not on the board of the Environmental Protection Agency, I have been elected to Dáil Éireann and I should have the right to question the Minister about important issues on behalf of constituents and citizens generally, rather then being blocked in this way.

Does the Taoiseach accept that if I had been elected to the Dáil ten years ago I could have asked questions and obtained responses on this matter? Whether the answers would be satisfactory or not, I do not know, but at least I could challenge the Minister on far more crucial issues than I am allowed to do now. Is that not going in the opposite direction to democratic accountability?

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