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

I take it that approximately ten or 11 Cabinet committees have been established. Could the Taoiseach indicate whether that is more than was the case in the previous Government and by how many?

The Government's response has been to establish a Cabinet sub-committee for the arts, Irish and the Gaeltacht because it has been rightly stung by the very sharp reaction from the arts community to what it sees as a consistent relegation and downgrading of the arts in public policy and Government policy in recent years, culminating in the formation of a very broad-ranging Department covering regional and rural affairs, the arts and the Gaeltacht. The arts community further sensed that represented a yet greater diminution of the arts. The idea of an arts, Irish and Gaeltacht sub-committee is clearly a response to that. I welcome that in itself but it is a long way short of giving proper executive authority at ministerial level for the arts. It is only a number of years ago that the arts had its own Department and portfolio. That was something we celebrated as a country. It was also something that had an impact on public policy itself. It is fair to say that the arts today has a lower status in Government than at any time in more than three decades.

I mentioned the fact that previously the arts had a Minister at senior level but now it is in a Department that is swamped by significant other duties in a wide range of areas. The arts has been ignored at junior ministerial level. Tens of thousands work in the arts sector, which is of extreme importance in terms of our values as a society. It is also economically important. I recall that at the first Global Irish Economic Forum in Farmleigh, all of the Irish CEOs who came from all over the world said that the one distinctive and distinguishing feature of Ireland was the arts and literature in terms of opening doors for trade, business and for the economy. The Taoiseach must give the arts significant, direct ministerial representation in government. It was a very serious omission and the Government is running to catch up now in terms of responding to the real sense of neglect that is felt. It is not just about structures of Government, because in terms of arts policy in recent years and the centrality of the arts, there is a real sense that the arts have been left behind.

In the context of the Cabinet sub-committee on health, it is difficult to understand what the health committee of the previous Cabinet did.

It presided over an overarching policy strategic objective and, at the end of five years, was obliged to admit defeat and state it did not really know what it was about for five years. It was called universal health insurance and at the end of the five years, the Cabinet sub-committee on health was obliged to admit it did not know what it was talking about and did not have a clue regarding universal health insurance. It was an abject failure and it dispensed with the policy.

In many ways, the previous Cabinet sub-committee was a work of art in itself in avoiding action on delivering in any meaningful way the Government's programme for health as laid out in the programme for Government. One hopes the newly formed Cabinet sub-committee on health will have a far more energetic and proactive content to its work. The Taoiseach may recall the Government published a White Paper on health insurance, which went through the previous Cabinet sub-committee on health. Can he indicate whether that White Paper on health insurance still is or remains official policy? Alternatively, has it essentially being ditched and is the Government going back to the drawing board?

Three years ago, the Taoiseach announced he was taking over direct responsibility for health. He made that announcement here in a ringing declaration during Leaders' Questions on one occasion.

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