Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

The Minister has some 37 agencies under his remit. How many has he met? As he knows there was a review of his Department by the Department of the Taoiseach. Transport is a very critical Department, where €1.27 billion of taxpayers' money is being spent on public transport, €2.1 million on national, regional and local roads, €40 million on road safety, €48 million on coastguard activity and so on. It is a very important Department. He mentioned the word, "governance". The governance of his Department is inadequate. There is little consensus within the Department as to whether users of the services of these agencies are customers of the Department and what its oversight role is.

The criticism is that the Minister is not doing his job, that he is sitting back and not meeting these agencies. They are spending billions of taxpayers' money and the Department does not know whether it has oversight. Those semi-State bodies do not know whether they are overseen by the Minister, either. In fact, they complain of the lack of direction and leadership from the Minister.

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