Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

However, I will not renege on our responsibility to hold the Government to account. There has been no cost benefit analysis carried out, no meaningful consultation. There is no service plan in place to identify how any of the proposed mergers will actually enhance the service currently provided.

Given the party whip system, our motion will not be carried. I am pleased that so many Government Deputies spoke positively to this motion. I ask them to ensure that the arm's length principle that successive Governments implemented during the past 60 years, which was enhanced in 1997 by the then Minister for arts, our current President, Michael D. Higgins, with the Cultural Institutions Act, continues-----

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