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

I put three questions to the Taoiseach in respect of the Economic Management Council. He dismissed any concerns relating to the EMC. However, it was the Tánaiste, Deputy Burton, who first articulated major concerns about the council. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, have done likewise. As Deputy O'Brien indicated, a former special adviser to the previous Minister for Education and Skills has confirmed that the Cabinet simply rubber-stamps decisions such as that relating to the cut in the pupil-teacher ratio and that those decisions are actually taken by the EMC. The bottom line is that there are some serious constitutional implications regarding the EMC as an entity. The council makes the major decisions in respect of the budget.

The Taoiseach might say that there are 19 or 20 items on the agenda at any Cabinet meeting. Many of these might relate to appointments to State boards or the adoption of the reports of semi-State bodies for publication. However, there is no doubt that the core decisions relating to budgetary matters have been taken by the EMC. The remaining members of the Cabinet have been made to look like puppets on a string. For them, it is a case of "do what you are told". The Taoiseach stated that the reason for establishing the EMC was to facilitate the flow of information. That is not the reason. He also engaged in his usual cheap political commentary regarding the previous Government, etc. Two thirds of decisions relating to the fiscal correction this country has endured were taken by the previous Cabinet in its entirety. We did not need to establish an entity such as the Economic Management Council to do what was necessary or to identify where cuts should be made. The cuts and decisions which, unfortunately, had to be made and were discussed by all Ministers collectively.

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