Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

The Taoiseach may not have made the commitment to halving his Department. I accept it is not in the programme for Government. However, he said he sees the Department as becoming the strategic centre of Government, overseeing the delivery of the programme for Government. It is for the Office of the Taoiseach to bring coherence, clear communication, commonality of purpose and a oneness of will and action to matters. How does the Taoiseach think that is going, given that the events of recent weeks demonstrate that the left hand does not seem to know what the right hand is doing? Ministers openly contradict each other.

See this speech in context