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

Obviously, I have been here for the last two hours and I have not spoken to my officials or been able to speak to them in that time. I was asked about working mechanisms and it is always sensible to be flexible in that regard and practical about how one decides to operate Government business. As Members have acknowledged and unlike the case with previous Governments, I have focused on involving the whole Cabinet in decision making as far as is practical. Today, for example, we spent an hour on Brexit. While Cabinet committees include officials and advisors, they often exclude Ministers. I like to do more things with Ministers than was the case in the past and often hold bilateral or trilateral meetings, in particular around health and housing. These meetings involve me, the line Minister and another relevant Minister, usually the Minister for Finance. We also use the Cabinet committees. For example, we decided specifically in regard to the O'Toole report on the future of policing that the Cabinet would note it and agree to its publication and that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, would come back to the Cabinet sub-committee with a reasoned response to it and an implementation plan. On that occasion, the right approach was that it should be noted by Cabinet and published and then referred to the Cabinet sub-committee for further consideration.

The infrastructure committee, which is sub-committee D, covers the national broadband plan and I receive a report every two weeks on the progress being made. On Thursday, we will have a meeting of that Cabinet sub-committee to deal with two major issues, namely housing and the implementation of Project Ireland 2040, respectively. The latter discussion will include broadband. There are two steps to come in the national broadband plan. The first involves the report of Peter Smyth on the process and whether it has been okay.

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