Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

These questions have become relevant because of last week's events. Many people were struck by the speed and consistency of the briefing against one of the Taoiseach's advisers and this even went so far as to show what exactly one of his advisers said to him when they were discussing his College Green speech. Every fair minded person can see that she was treated badly by whomever of her colleagues chose to brief about her responsibilities. Will the Taoiseach confirm to whom responsibility has been given for briefing the press about discussions within his office and state whether he has taken steps to ensure there is no repeat of last week's briefings?

On the separate issue of specific sectoral responsibilities, he stated yesterday that his Department has retained a role in implementing co-ordination across government. The problem is that so far he has been willing to talk about accountability in a general sense but to deflect questions that relate to specific accountability on issues. He said yesterday he had a major role in economic issues outside of his Cabinet role but then said again that any specific questions about individual issues should be put to Ministers and so on.

With regard to his non-established staff, has he given sectoral responsibilities to advisers as an important statement of his priorities across the board? For example, will his advisers give advice to Cabinet sub-committees in specific areas? Are they members of Cabinet subgroups relating to social inclusion, for example?

See this speech in context