Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

Will the Minister confirm whether the reply he just gave to the House is official Government policy or is it his policy on the issue? Was his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, telling the truth at the recent Green Party conference in March when he stated he had succeeded in reversing the cuts to the Equality Authority, and that he had succeeded also in halting the decentralisation of the headquarters of the authority to Roscrea in County Tipperary? Is the Green Party now deciding policy in this issue or is the Minister, Deputy Gormley, being less than frank with the truth?

In respect of the Roscrea situation, are we now going to have two Equality Authority offices, the Minister, Deputy Gormley's rump in Dublin, which he calls the headquarters and the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern's decentralised offices in Roscrea? This shambles is of the Minister's making and the sooner it is sorted the better.

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