Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I tabled four out of the six questions that we are taking and I will take them in some degree of sequence. I am endeavouring to get clarity from the Taoiseach as to the issues on which he is willing to answer questions. I have written to the Ceann Comhairle on the matter and it will be raised at the CPP. I specifically want to address the matter of questions being transferred from the Department of the Taoiseach. Under the doctrine of collective responsibility it has long been the rule of the House that the Taoiseach can answer any question he wants. Therefore when a question is transferred it is not because he cannot answer it, but because he chooses not to answer it.

In Question No. 1, I asked for exact and not general details of the matters on which the Taoiseach is willing to answer questions. The failure to give the requested list in the reply is striking and instead I got an answer about long-established precedent. Will the Taoiseach instruct his officials that they should no longer, for example, transfer questions on contacts he has had with European Union leaders or leaders in Northern Ireland? There comes a point when all the talk about reform is undermined by the reality of significant backward steps. For example, can the Taoiseach explain how he can transfer the entire EU affairs section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the Department of the Taoiseach last week while at the same time refuse to answer a simple question about the European Union Presidency in 2013?

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