Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was not a case of reluctance to sign the delegation order. Primary care does not have a statutory legal base. It is a difference between statutory legal basis, policy issues and administrative issues. The fact that it took some time to get this correct in respect of the previous Minister of State was also an issue in respect of her successor, Deputy Alex White. This meant it was a continuation of officially carrying on the delegation order given to the previous Minister of State. It was not a case of deliberately delaying. Primary care is not a statutory power; policy and the administration of primary care were the subject of the delegation order for the Minister of State. That continued with the current incumbent.

The Minister of State, Deputy Paul Kehoe, has functions relating to the Central Statistics Office, including signing statutory instruments, replying to parliamentary questions on statistical matters and receiving regular briefings on statistical matters from the staff of the Central Statistics Office. The Minister of State is also responsible for reaching agreement with the National Statistics Board on guiding the strategic direction of the Central Statistics Office.

The Statistics Act 1993 provides that the director general of the CSO is completely independent in the exercise of functions relating to statistical methodology and standards, the content of statistical releases and publications and the timing and methods of dissemination of these releases and those publications. Clearly, there are specific functions delegated to the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs who is accredited to the Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Ministers of State are appointed by the Government and their general role and responsibility is to assist Ministers in the running of their various Departments. In many cases, that particular assistance is related to policy issues and, therefore, formal delegation of statutory powers is not, or may not be, necessary, depending on the policy issues the Minister of State deals with.

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