Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to debates, I am scheduling them as a matter for the Business Committee, but Sinn Féin is free to use its time to discuss fisheries or marine matters at any time it so wishes. When it comes to committees, invitations are issued by the committees and not by me. We have of course discussed issues relating to fisheries and the reform of the CAP with both Commissioner Hogan and Mr. Michel Barnier. In addition to that, the Minister, Deputy Creed, has been working closely with counterparts in other EU member states with a particular interest in fishing in the north-western waters. We plan to have a united front and a common negotiating position for Ireland as part of the European Union during this period. The Minister, Deputy Creed, will be speaking to the UK Secretary of State, Michael Gove, this week about this and other priority issues.

With regard to the new Department of rural and community development, the Department will be taking the rural affairs and regional development section from the Department of arts, heritage and Gaeltacht, and the community section from the Department of Housing, Community, Planning and Local Government. Also, it will most likely take the charity sector from the Department of Justice and Equality. The new Department will not be taking Gaeltacht affairs. That will remain in the Department of arts, culture and the Gaeltacht, with its name still to be finalised. What is being recreated there is the Department that existed in 1997, when it was originally created under President Higgins. It will be slightly smaller than the previous Department, but that is mainly because the Gaeltacht portfolio is not going to be a part of the Department of rural and community development. An interim Secretary General has now been appointed. Work is under way to get that Department up and running. There is much important work to be done there.

Like many things, one could place something like drugs in many Departments and could associate it with justice, education, health or community. My view is that drugs and addiction are health issues and that the best place for drugs is in the Department of Health, and not the Department of Justice and Equality or the Department of community affairs. Of course, that is a matter of opinion. I am also conscious that the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, is now finalising the new national drugs strategy. Therefore, I thought it appropriate to allow her to finish that work and to finish it in the Department of Health and not to disrupt things by moving that area of policy to a different Department. What is more important than which Department it is in is that the work gets done and the new strategy is produced and implemented.

With regard to Deputy Howlin's question on regional development, I noted that he mentioned the mid-west, the south and the west, but not the south east. I am not sure whether that was an oversight on his part-----

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