Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 28, inclusive, and 173 together.

Three Cabinet committee meetings were held in January - economic recovery and jobs, health, and mortgage arrears and credit availability. So far this year there have been 16 Cabinet committee meetings. The committees on economic recovery and jobs, social policy, and mortgage arrears and credit availability have each met three times, the committees on health and economic infrastructure twice, and the committees on public service reform, European affairs, and Irish and the Gaeltacht once.

The Cabinet committee on European affairs last met on 5 March. The committee on health met on 14 January and 11 February, and the next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow.

The Cabinet committee on mortgage arrears has met 11 times since it was established. I chair this committee and its members are the Tánaiste, the Ministers for Finance; Public Expenditure and Reform; Social Protection; Environment, Community and Local Government; Justice and Equality; and Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning.

The Cabinet committees on social policy, and economic recovery and jobs last met yesterday. A sub-committee of the committee on economic recovery and jobs, dealing specifically with pathways to work, has met four times so far this year. The Government's focus continues to be devising and implementing effective, long-term, pro-growth strategies to create jobs and get the long-term unemployed back into employment. We launched the second Action Plan for Jobs 2013 in February following extensive discussions with Ministers on how each Department can assist in our job creation priority. It builds on the success of last year’s plan, which saw an implementation rate of 92% of actions to support economic growth and jobs. This year’s plan contains more than 300 distinct actions to be implemented in 2013 by all Departments and 46 State agencies. This is a whole-of-Government strategy and incorporates the publication of quarterly progress reports with targets.

The Economic Management Council has met 11 times so far this year and 14 times since the announcement of budget 2013. The next meeting is scheduled for 24 April. The members of the council met representatives of the banks twice in 2012, the last time on 26 June. As part of this ongoing process, I expect that the Economic Management Council will meet representatives of the banks as required during 2013 to ensure that the banking sector supports economic recovery.

Over recent months I have introduced the practice of dedicating one Monday per month for meetings of Cabinet committees. Yesterday, I chaired meetings of the following committees: social policy; economic recovery and jobs; mortgage arrears and credit availability; economic infrastructure; Irish and the Gaeltacht; and the cabinet sub-committee on pathways to work.

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