Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach is aware that there is a concern about the expanding power and role of the Economic Management Council, EMC. It was originally established, as the Taoiseach has outlined, with the status of a Cabinet committee to manage the Government's programme on economic planning, budgetary matters and banking policy coming out of the crash. I can understand, to a certain degree, the logic of that and the need to have a focus on those matters. However, it appears that its power and influence have grown, in so far as it is possible to tell from the opaque answers we sometimes get to questions to establish this. It appears that the EMC acts almost as a Government within the Government and then brings forward its decisions to the Cabinet, and also that some of the senior people - civil servants and political advisers - who attend these meetings may well have more influence on the decisions taken than do members of the Cabinet itself. There is a question about whether the role, the decisions and the actions of the economic council are replacing the constitutional responsibility of the Cabinet.

There are also big issues that need to be dealt with. There are hundreds of citizens on hospital trolleys. Has the economic council discussed that? There is the issue of rent certainty or the lack thereof. Has the economic council discussed that? There is an ongoing issue around the lack of Government plans to tackle the housing and homelessness crisis. The Taoiseach says that homelessness is not acceptable. With absolute respect, let me say that homelessness is a direct consequence of his Government's policy and it is acceptable to the Government. It would not be happening if the Taoiseach decided to stop it happening and if he got houses built for those people who need them. I raised the plight of the Traveller community earlier. Its accommodation funding was cut by 93%. Imagine - a 93% cut. Did the Economic Management Council take that decision?

I asked question No. 7. I do not recall the Taoiseach answering it, although he may have and I may have missed it, and if so, I apologise. I asked him to confirm whether the Governor of the Central Bank briefed the EMC on the possible implications of a Greek exit from the European Union and the euro. If he has not answered that, I would be obliged if he would tell us whether that happened. Could he tell us what meetings, if any, the EMC has had with the banks in the last year?

See this speech in context