Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A range of questions was asked. First, the Economic Management Council has the status of a Cabinet committee and has four members, namely, me, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. It is not the Cabinet and does not have the collective responsibility of the Cabinet in putting together and agreeing the final details of the budget. A second Secretary General has been appointed in my Department whose responsibilities include managing support for the Economic Management Council and who deals with that area of support. Moreover, additional support is provided for the Economic Management Council from within the existing resources of my Department. They work in close connection with the Departments of Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Foreign Affairs and Trade. The role of the council is to manage the Government's programme in respect of economic planning and budgetary matters, the economic recovery programme, including the representation of Ireland internationally with the European Union-European Central Bank-IMF troika, the integration of the work of Departments and agencies in these matters and the co-ordination of banking policy. This is what the Economic Management Council was set up to do and these are its responsibilities.

The council provides a forum to discuss strategic issues before they get into Government for decision and like other Cabinet committees, it does not replace the role of the Government, whereby all Ministers have a duty and responsibility to contribute to final decision-making. It is good practice, on foot of lessons learned from previous mistakes, to have a forum in which relevant Ministers and officials can consider the economic strategy based on the best advantages to the country. As I stated, the budget for 2014 has not been signed off on or approved by the Cabinet in general and that will happen before Tuesday. I might add the Ministers present, namely, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, are both strong and vociferous contributors to the Cabinet process, as are all other Ministers and as they have a duty to be.

Deputy Higgins spoke about a revolt and whether anyone revolted. While the people obviously have strong views to express at times, that falls somewhere short of the revolution of which Deputy Higgins speaks.

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