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

Central to the Department of the Taoiseach's statement of strategy is the support of an active system of Cabinet committees. In spite of this, the Taoiseach has said that he prefers to bring most issues directly to Cabinet for discussion. The net impact of this is that less time is spent on the issues involved, detailed preparatory papers are not circulated and responsible officials are not present to ask questions. Which of the Cabinet committees, if any, does the Taoiseach believe needs to meet regularly and to be the main place for detailed discussions?

Separately, departmental staff play a crucial role in providing economic analyses which are independent and are intended to take a wider perspective. They are responsible for briefing the Taoiseach of the day on economic matters and providing the secretariat to the Cabinet committee on the economy. Given the scale of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council's criticism of the Government's control of budgets, how it is responding to revenue buoyancy and the threat of Brexit, is the Taoiseach satisfied that he was aware of these issues before the council issued its criticisms? Were those criticisms a surprise to him, given his regularly stated position that the Government is fully in control and implementing exactly the right policies? The Taoiseach will remember that when his €3 billion tax cut was announced last year, he toured studios raising it as a hugely significant promise. Last week, however, he said it was not significant and was just what others had been proposing all along. Has the Taoiseach's Department provided him with any analysis of the cost and impact of his headline policy?

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