Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Questions Nos. 5 and 6 deal with the Taoiseach's role in co-ordinating economic policy and Question No. 7 is about the jobs initiative. I will deal with the three of them and I will ask permission for supplementary questions, especially for Question No. 7.

The Taoiseach has restructured the Department in such a way as to remove nearly all of his work from parliamentary scrutiny and put it behind Cabinet confidentiality. The Taoiseach gave the new economic Cabinet committee a good name, but in essence its effect is to end the ability of Members on this side of the House to ask the Taoiseach about nearly all of his work in the economic field. That is the exact opposite to the increased transparency that we were promised by him on coming into Government. The Taoiseach normally oversees a range of co-ordination measures for Government priorities, but if all of these come under Cabinet committees, then clearly that work is effectively shielded from all scrutiny. How can the Taoiseach talk about increased accountability when he is directly reducing it in his own work?

The Department of the Taoiseach is setting a very aggressive approach in transferring questions elsewhere and disallowing questions that have always been answered by taoisigh in the past. The situation is getting worse, as far as we can see. Are there any economic matters handled by the Department for which the Taoiseach is willing to be accountable during Question Time? What would they be?

My question on the jobs initiative is again about transparency----

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