Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

It will not. The broad decision-making authority with regard to expenditure matters, which has traditionally been vested in the Department of Finance and the Minister for Finance, will simply become my responsibility and that of my Department. There is no new tier at all. That is what is happening, in a broad sense.

I will comment on the matters raised by the Deputy. Major road projects are matters for the capital programme. As the Deputy knows, the capital programme is agreed by the Cabinet on a collective basis. We have to get the balance right when deciding how much to spend on roads, hospitals or schools. Everybody chips into that process by making a bid before the balance is determined. The proposition will be brought by me, as the Minister responsible for expenditure. The bids will be made by the line Departments and the overall capital programme will be determined. The role of the Minister for Finance in those matters will be to sign the cheques. I will be responsible for policy on line expenditure. As I have explained, the Central Fund will remain under the control of the Minister for Finance. For the most part - it will depend on the actual function, as set out in this Bill - he will simply act on my request to release funds for agreed projects. I will consult him on some matters.

No great extra line of bureaucracy is associated with this approach. It provides for joined-up government and ensures there is greater scrutiny of expenditure. The Minister responsible for expenditure does not have to deal with the macroeconomic situation or attend ECOFIN meetings, but has Cabinet-ranked responsibility nonetheless. We also have the economic management council, which comprises the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance and me. Overall economic policy is determined by that body, as a subset of the Cabinet. This system ensures, for the first time, that all elements of government, including the Department of Foreign Affairs, the NTMA and the Central Bank, understand Government policy and sing from the same hymn sheet. I do not think I am revealing any State secrets when I say that during the negotiations for the programme for Government, one of the things that jarred most with us was the lack of joined-up government. When we came into office, we found there were different takes on the solutions to problems being pursued by different agencies of the State. We need to have one forum for making economic policy - the economic management council - and every agency of government should feed into that. The committee's findings should be disseminated across the public service. They should be used in all interactions with external funders like the IMF, the EU and the ECB and with our colleagues in other European governments. That will ensure they know where Ireland stands and what Ireland's policy is. It will allow us to map our way to economic sustainability in an incremental way. That is what we have set about in the first three months. The establishment of this Department is an important step in having such an integrated, co-ordinated system that allows the focus of Government to be shared to the best advantage of reaching economic sustainability.

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