Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I chair most of the major Cabinet sub-committees, although not all of them. There are others that I did not mention but I have mentioned the main ones.

There are other Cabinet committees which meet from time to time, including the Cabinet committee on Northern Ireland. The Cabinet committee on security also meets from time to time to get security briefings or to deal with issues relevant to Northern Ireland. Those I already mentioned are the main ones, dealing with infrastructure, health, social exclusion and European affairs. They meet on a monthly basis and they usually have very extensive agendas. They do not deal with day to day issues but issues relevant to the Departments and agencies under their aegis. If an issue was moved from the Cabinet table for more comprehensive discussion by the committee, obviously the committee would report back to the Cabinet. That is the usual procedure. A lot of the other committees deal with more time-consuming issues. We spend several hours per week at Cabinet meetings where we tease out and follow through on issues. The committee on Aer Lingus was centred around the privatisation issue. That was its function and that function was completed. As Deputy Kenny will know from experience, other issues of a current nature come up at the weekly Cabinet meeting.

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