Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

One of the problems this Administration has is its competence when it comes to joined-up government. There are many Ministers and such a huge number of Ministers of State that we cannot even remember their names or functions. It is not clear from what we discussed today how the children's hospital got into its current state of bad budgeting. The Taoiseach did not comment on the boil water notices during my earlier question, but we were told today that Irish Water needs significant amounts of money to do up the treatment plant in Leixlip. Yet, there does not seem to be any joined-up government. A boil water notice was issued two weeks ago, and another was announced today which will last until Thursday. We could have them all the way up to Christmas. Where does the Government interact? The Taoiseach mentioned the 2015 climate change legislation that I, as Tánaiste, ensured came into effect. That only happened because I demanded it. The Taoiseach seems to be floating somewhere above this as if he is not affected by any of these things which affect people in their daily lives.

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