Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is not a question of duplication. It is a question of having a facility available to a Minister were he or she to be located there and working from there and having an office in Dublin. It is not a question of having just one office per Ministry and having to decide where that might be. From an efficacy point of view, a Minister must have the ability to operate from whatever location one is in at any given time. There are Ministers of State who have more than one Department under their aegis who, when they go from one Department to another, are able to work in that Department. These are logistical matters.

To answer Deputy Ó Caoláin, and in an effort to be as frank and candid as I possibly can without him reinterpreting Government decisions, the question of the timing of further work on implementation of the balance of the programme, other than those priority locations announced on budget day, is being deferred pending a review in 2011 in the light of budgetary developments. The Government's preference would have been not to delay any aspect of the programme, but in light of the deterioration in the public finances it has been necessary to curtail capital expenditure across a range of projects. All the projects simply cannot be afforded in the short term due to the current economic situation and this is a sensible and reasoned approach to adopt, given the circumstances.

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