Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An Teachta Howlin raises an important question here. As the Taoiseach acknowledged, the term of the current council has expired some time ago.

However, members have not been appointed or re-appointed and there is a full complement of staff. There is a secretariat, but it has no members and no work plan. What is it doing? The National Economic and Social Development Office, NESDO, is effectively obsolete yet it remains in place as the body responsible to NESC, to which it is supposed to report if it had anything to report. The Taoiseach said that the last Government promised legislation to abolish NESDO, but this matter dates back to when former Deputy Brian Cowen was Taoiseach. The issue of abolishing NESDO and establishing NESC as the remaining statutory body has been on successive Governments' legislative programmes since 2013. Perhaps the Government could give a timeframe for when it will have concluded the deliberations the Taoiseach mentioned. Can the Taoiseach give a date for when legislation to deal with these matters will be debated in the House?

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