Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Two of these three questions were mine. One question was on co-ordination and the other was on prioritisation. I mentioned the drugs policy earlier. The allocation of Ministries and remits is wrong and could undermine accepted analysis and approaches to the drugs issue. Will the Taoiseach look again at how the responsibilities have been allocated?

Having been involved in the establishment of the Office of the Minister for Children, having worked with the Minister of State with responsibility for children and having seen how the office has worked over the years in terms of co-ordination and delivery of policy across the board, lumping disability, equality, mental health and older people together under one Minister of State is perhaps too onerous and does not do justice to older people.

Children benefited from the co-ordination that resulted from the establishment of the Office of the Minister for Children, including the national children's strategy and so on, and the policy of having a Minister of State with responsibility for older people should have continued because the issues are enormous and wide-ranging in terms of an aeging population and, thanks be to God, one that is living longer because of modern advances in medicine and so on. A wide range of issues need to be dealt with and justify the allocation of a specific Minister of State to embrace the issues of older people and to co-ordinate all the issues which challenge older people in modern society. A mistake has been made by not doing that.

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