Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The responsibilities of the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, have widened. He is to be responsible for relations with the trade unions, undefined responsibilities at the Department of Finance, and responsibilities for public service reform. Had there been guts to the Taoiseach's reform of Government, one of the more redundant Departments, of which there are plenty of candidates but I do not have the time to list them all, could have been transformed into one decent Cabinet portfolio dealing with those issues. Instead the Taoiseach seems to have funked that and what we have is new wine in old bottles except that in this case, the wine has turned to vinegar.

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