Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I point out to the Deputy that the Cabinet sub-committee has already published two reports in respect of over 200 individual actions, and they are available for him to read, if he wishes. The role of the sub-committee is to provide a basis for cross-departmental co-ordination in the areas of social exclusion, social inclusion, poverty reduction and service delivery, including providing assurance about coherence in the engagement across Departments with all of the different target groups. The combination of social policy issues with the public service reform agenda will ensure that questions about how services should be reconfigured and tailored to guarantee their effectiveness will certainly be something that is of critical analysis.

For example, we had a very good meeting yesterday where the publication of a national dementia strategy was discussed and approved and where the national drugs strategy was considered in regard to how that should evolve beyond 2015 and 2016 in order to make preparations for dealing with the challenges that are there. The Cabinet sub-committee has done and is doing a great deal of work in these areas of social inclusion, poverty and homelessness, which obviously has implications for the greater Dublin area in particular but also in so many other areas around the country, where there are also homeless people and housing issues.

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