Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I welcome the fact the Taoiseach agrees with the concept of programme managers. When I was a Minister, two people came to the Department and I answered a parliamentary question as to whether one of them had access to a mobile phone, such was the welcome for the concept in parts of the House.

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about arrangements concerning his own Department and the Department of Finance. He has outlined the use of advisers and programme managers, but my memory is that the Minister still took the ultimate decision. Are firms supplying advice services to either of those two Departments, whereby what is being hired is the corporate entity rather than an individual? The guidelines the Taoiseach described are ones that affect individuals. I am asking about accountancy firms that may be supplying advice on a per diem basis. According to the guidelines, in that instance, an arm's length distance is appropriate between such accountancy services and sensitive international financial decisions.

Perhaps there are no such advisers in the Department of Finance, which may be rich in intellectual energy and whose staff may be proposing models to the Minister all the time. Perhaps the same is true in the Department of the Taoiseach. However, are firms being hired on a contractual basis to give specific advice, which is paid for on a daily basis? If so, what guidelines apply to them? Is the Taoiseach in a position to state that they do not conflict in any way either with the examination of the models or their application?

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