Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy said, there are recommendations in the McCarthy report on that matter. All these recommendations must be subject to political scrutiny and decisions will have to be taken on them. Some are more urgent than others, while some are more important than others. However, all of them must be considered on their merits.

As I listened to the Deputy's supplementary question, I thought for a moment he was going to suggest that the Department of the Taoiseach should be got rid of altogether since it was not doing this, that and the other.

See this speech in context