Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Under the Public Service Management Act 1997, every new Minister who takes up office is obliged to have a strategic plan for his or her Department within six months. That deadline has passed and none of the Departments to my knowledge, and certainly not the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation which I shadow, has produced such a strategy statement. These are the bedrock on which we judge the performance of Ministers and their Departments. Why has the Taoiseach decided not to require these to be published, as is required by law?

Surely at this time of great crisis we need to see a clear strategy emerging from these new Ministers as to the direction they are trying to take.

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