Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The key aspects of reshaping the structure of government, a process I hope will be undertaken by the next Administration, involve assessing the key functions in society and in the economy and seeking to manage them in a coherent way. The Government has not done this. There are various important roles to fulfil among the ranks of existing Ministers of State. The Chief Whip, for example, performs a vital function. It is important to have a Minister of State with responsibility for children and young people. It is also vital to have a Minister of State to deal with issues relating to our membership of the European Union, particularly in the context of the debate on the provisions of the Lisbon treaty. I was bitterly opposed to the way the marine function was cannibalised and shamefully wiped out by this Government under the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, the latter having promised marine interests that all relevant responsibilities would be held together under one Department. I also see a function for a Minister of State with responsibility for community matters, with a particular emphasis on drugs issues. There is also a function for a Minister of State with responsibility for older people. There is room too for a Minister of State dealing with labour and employment issues. These represent the key concerns of any Government.

Moreover, there are functions currently carried out by Ministers of State which should be represented in their own right by a full Department. A good example of this is housing. How on earth did we have a situation where the largest industry in the State — with 300,000 directly employed and up to 200,000 in related employment — was not represented at the Cabinet table? My distinguished colleague, Deputy Stagg, had responsibility for this area as Minister of State under a previous Administration. There have been other Ministers of State with responsibility for this issue, up to and including the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran. However, along with the marine, housing should be represented by a full Department.

Other changes are required in the system. The Department of Finance is a case in point. We should look to the British system in this regard. There is a strong case for the Minister for Finance having a financially inclined Member beside him or her in the role of deputy Minister for Finance. With the best will in the world the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, came in here and gave us the first pre-budget submission when Fine Gael, Labour and everybody else was prepared to start the debate at full ministerial level. There are many ways at both Minister and Minister of State level where the functions should be reformed. I cannot see how the current system of 20 Ministers of State with the cobbled together bits of portfolios that many of them have can be justified.

I will give one brief example. I have been dealing with the Department for Transport, where there is a Minister of State. In the past eight or ten months I am not sure what exactly he has been doing. He needs to prepare one piece of legislation, a road traffic Bill. For the past two years going back to before the time that I became spokesperson for the area and back into the previous Dáil we have been asking for that Bill. I bet the Minister of State, Deputy Sargent, even asked for that Bill, which we still do not have. We have a Minister of State with responsibility for older persons. A few weeks ago I asked her about nursing home care — a central issue relating to older persons. I was told to contact another Department. It seems to be an incoherent system that needs reform and I commend Fine Gael on tabling tonight's motion.

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