Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Constitution is clear that the Cabinet acts as a collective in terms of responsibility for all Departments. It is reasonable to state that collective Cabinet responsibility has broken down in recent times in terms of Ministers flatly contradicting one another. I understand the Taoiseach had a meeting this morning with the leader of Fianna Fáil in advance of Cabinet. Are there regular meetings between the Taoiseach and the leader of Fianna Fáil in relation to the confidence and supply arrangements or how are the confidence and supply arrangements supported at leadership level between the Taoiseach and the leader of Fianna Fáil?

In regard to the question raised by my colleague, Deputy Burton, on the Government's maintained support of Deputy Lowry, the Chief Whip was reported as saying that she provided weekly briefings to him but information obtained under a freedom of information request indicated that there was no available material in that regard. Are weekly briefings provided to Deputy Lowry or any other Deputy outside of Government?

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