Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

For once, I largely agree with the Deputy. Since we started the dialogue I have been anxious to obtain a comprehensive list. There are some listed agencies which no longer function and have not done so for years. I have asked every line Department for its list. Some bodies operate as a subset of another State agency. We will draw all of them together. That work is ongoing.

I never said I wanted to smash quangos. I have never used such language. I want to streamline State agencies. In the programme I published last November I laid out the 48 bodies which would be rationalised this year. We will conclude the review of a further 46 bodies by the middle of this year and determine their future.

Some bodies on the Deputy's list of 250 have not met for years. I brought a report to the Government this morning, for example, of a committee which comes into being when a senior civil servant who is leaving the public service applies to work in a related area and needs permission to do so. That group, although it is categorised as an agency or a quango, meets once in a blue moon. When we talk about quangos or agencies and not having comprehensive lists, we need to understand some of them are very tiny which meet to perform specific functions under legislation, some dating back decades, while others are very important. We know all the important agencies which we need to rationalise. We need to have a comprehensive list and we are working on it. I will get it to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

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