Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the answer. If the announcement is that the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, will have delegated responsibility for the area that she has been given, I am delighted with that. If higher education has that completely separate voice at Cabinet, that is important. I think Deputy Mitchell O'Connor was treated pretty badly and if this is the job that is envisaged, that is a different story altogether. It is an important role, but one that we would expect a Minister sitting at the Cabinet to have full delegated responsibilities for, and that she would be the one answering questions on third level. As a senior academic said to me yesterday, and Dr. Kissinger said of Europe, "Who do we talk to?"

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