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

The Cabinet this morning approved the establishment of new Cabinet committees. There will be five Cabinet committees, lettered A, B, C, D and E, one covering broadly economic policy; one covering broadly public services and social policy, one dealing with Brexit and European affairs, one dealing principally with infrastructure and housing and a fifth one dealing principally with health. We are going to see how that works for six months and then make changes at that point if any need to be made.

I had a chance to meet all the staff in the Department yesterday, albeit briefly but individually, to see what they do in their different areas. The Department of the Taoiseach is quite a small one and only 100 or so people work in it. People may imagine that the Department that co-ordinates matters and runs Government is much bigger than it really is. We will need to consider in the time ahead which areas need to be beefed up and perhaps Northern Ireland is one of those areas.

I very much agree with the Deputy that the Good Friday Agreement is and should remain the framework by which we manage relations in Northern Ireland, both North and South and east and west. It was agreed and passed in a referendum in this Republic by 97% of the people and in Northern Ireland by 71% of the people. It is not just a 50% plus one mandate, it is a set of relationships that have been agreed in both parts of the island by big majorities and by both communities. I do not believe there should be any significant change in the constitutional status or constitutional arrangements in Northern Ireland unless there is a degree of support from both communities.

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