Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the change or reform of Cabinet committees, there are many questions about the strategy the Taoiseach has deployed. The Taoiseach said he wanted the committees to be more focused, but he has put many issues involving wide-ranging and diverse disciplines under one committee. As a result of his changes, the national anti-poverty strategy, public sector reform, the drugs strategy and the promotion of the Irish language will be dealt with by the same Cabinet committee. That is absurd and it will be difficult to achieve a focus in that committee. In my view, abolishing a sub-committee in an area such as justice reform is wrong. Every Cabinet committee had an associated senior officials group which met separately, and that is often where most of the detailed work got done. Now, effectively, there will be no dedicated interdepartmental group on nearly all issues. Perhaps the Taoiseach will explain how he believes the previous work that was undertaken by interdepartmental groups on specific topics will be continued.

Regarding the reform of policing and the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, can the Taoiseach indicate when he expects an interim report or when the Minister for Justice and Equality will be able to make a presentation? The Taoiseach must accept that morale within An Garda Síochána is low. It was not helped last week by his comments. When court cases are concluded and other court cases relating to the same incident are about to take place we must avoid comment on the issues.

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