Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Perhaps they did not advise the Taoiseach and his Ministers about the commentaries of international financial commentators about the possibility of a crisis. He stated yesterday that it was not possible to predict any of this, yet there were many stark warnings.

Are all of the programme managers paid out of the Votes of individual Ministers? In other words, is the programme manager for the Minister for Foreign Affairs paid out of that Department's Vote? I recall the time the programme manager concept was introduced and, at its core, it has had an impact on freeing up the business being done by Ministers. Why is the programme manager for the Minister for Health Children paid for by the Department of the Taoiseach? Is there a specific reason for that if every other programme manager is paid for out of individual Votes? The Department of Health and Children has another press officer attached to the Government Information Service. Why is this when Professor Drumm has a battery of media staff and spin doctors to continually send out streams of information about what is happening or not happening, as the case might be, in the HSE?

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