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

It made sense to proceed with that and other matters, such as Healthy Ireland, another cross-Government campaign to which this Administration is very committed. We do not need a survey to tell us that people need to know more about the benefits of good health or that they would benefit from good health. However, there are areas of information deficits, and part of the citizens' survey, whenever it is carried out, will be to identify where there are such deficits and where people are not aware of Government policies and programmes. If we repeat that survey every six or 12 months, we will be able to assess whether the campaigns are making a difference in increasing public awareness of these policies and programmes.

I am still very much looking for savings in cross-governmental communications. Even though the strategic communications unit is being wound down, the policy objective of seeking savings across spending on communications by Government and its agencies remains. This is, of course, a matter of different circumstances on different occasions. Semi-State agencies, for example, operate very differently from Government Departments and agencies.

Again, I would very much welcome the convening of the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference. I have spoken to Prime Minister May about this, both by telephone and in person. I am making arrangements to meet her in Sofia in Bulgaria next week, if she attends. I do not have confirmation yet as to whether she will be in attendance but convening of the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference is certainly one of the matters I would wish to discuss with her. The British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, as the House will be aware, is one of the structures established under the Good Friday Agreement. It provides a mechanism by which the Irish and British Governments may discuss matters relating to the agreement and to Northern Ireland. However, it is wrong to suggest that the intergovernmental conference is a silver bullet. It is not a body that has any authority or executive powers. Merely convening it will not add any further dimension to it that cannot be achieved from a bilateral meeting between the Prime Minister and me, a meeting between the Tánaiste and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland or other meetings that happen all the time. I think to convene in this format would be beneficial but it would be wrong to think that merely convening it will produce a result or an outcome as it does not have decision-making powers.

Regarding my advisers, I do not propose to appoint a specific economic adviser at present. I know the appointment of such an adviser has been the practice in the past, so it may be something I do into the future. However, my best economic adviser is Deputy Donohoe, the person I appointed to the roles of Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. We meet almost every week to discuss-----

See this speech in context