Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Were all the Ministers of State appointed given delegated functions by the Ministers in charge of their Departments, specifically in the Taoiseach's Department? Do both Ministers of State have delegated functions? I assume the Chief Whip does, as very obvious duties are assigned. In many other cases one gets the impression that Ministers of State are a bit aimless unless they have a nice senior Minister who allows them to do something. Otherwise they are condemned to the graveyard shift in the Dáil where they handle Adjournment debate matters when they come in and read out a script, which, normally, only a couple of people have the pleasure of hearing. It is the equivalent, in television terms, of being on "Oireachtas Report", if one were involved in its production. As a Minister of State, one ends up reading prepared scripts that one has not even seen before entering the Chamber. Are there delegated functions for all the Ministers of State recently appointed by the Taoiseach?

Is the Taoiseach concerned that, in the way the appointments of the new line up of Ministers of State was handled, the fallout was very destructive of the image of smart-----

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