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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 9 together.

On 14 June 2017 the Government appointed Deputy Joe Mcl-lugh as Government Chief Whip and Minister of State at my Department and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht with special responsibility for Gaeilge, the Gaeltacht and the islands and Deputy Paul Kehoe as Minister of State at my Department and the Department of Defence with special responsibility for defence. On 20 June the Government appointed Deputy Pat Breen as Minister of State at my Department, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Justice and Equality with special responsibility for trade, employment, business, the EU digital Single Market and data protection and Deputy Helen McEntee as Minister of State at my Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with special responsibility for European affairs.

At my request, on 5 July, the Government made an order delegating my statutory functions relating to the Central Statistics Office under the Statistics Act 1993, the Civil Service Regulation Acts 1956 to 2005 and the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004 to the Government Chief Whip, Deputy Joe McHugh.

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