Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, just the reform programme generally in respect of justice, which had been promised. Was the Secretary General at that meeting? We are still conscious that the Minister has not articulated confidence in the Secretary General of her own Department. I would be interested in knowing how that plays out at committee meetings.

The Taoiseach mentioned that the health sub-committee met once in February and held a second meeting in May, or were there two in May? According to the Minister, Deputy Reilly, a significant programme of profound change is under way in the health service. Surely there would have been more Cabinet sub-committee meetings if that were the case.

There is a greater crisis in health now than ever before. There is no sense of any profound change taking place. If anything, the situation is getting worse in terms of waiting lists and so on. The Taoiseach said the mortgage committee met once in February, and I am not sure if it met in May. That is one Cabinet committee that has singularly failed to deal comprehensively with a chronic, ongoing problem, with up to more than 90,000 people in arrears over three months and more than 24,000 people who have not paid their full mortgage in two years. There are major social issues emanating from that. It seems that the only result one can detect from the policy of increasing the number of Cabinet committee meetings is that less Government activity is now open to public scrutiny. As the Taoiseach is aware, all of these meetings are covered by Cabinet confidentiality, therefore, many of the policy workings in the groups that meet to feed into these Cabinet committees are not subject to public discussion. Will the structure be revisited after the Cabinet reshuffle? Given the nature of the frequency of the meetings, they do not seem to having any impact other than to take from the role of public scrutiny?

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