Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to answer as quickly as I can. Some of them are no longer my brief, although they were until the transition.

The construction innovation fund is a concept that was developed during my time in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform around the area of building information modelling technology so that we could use best practice in the private sector to ensure that when the State goes out to the market or develops concepts internally, we can use the best available technology like building information modelling. That goes on to the next point on the innovation services and fund in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I drove this concept initially because I believe that across the Civil Service, we have a range of talents that might not necessarily be exploited, and to allow people from outside agencies and the outside world with skills that are not exploited to use those skills. The Deputy is correct that the fund was oversubscribed in the first year. It is being doubled. The first thing was to get the centre up and running and give it teeth. People were seconded from agencies or organisations, including the Defence Forces. It is innovative in that it brings people from all over, seconding them and allowing them to go back to use their energies and experience. Often Governments are criticised - I was a member of the Committee of Public Accounts - rightly or wrongly for the overuse of consultants. As a former Minister of State with responsibility for the area now covered by Deputy Ossian Smyth, I believed that this was a way to make progress.

The Deputy mentioned the Secretary General's role in relation to the Health Vote. I do not know the detail but I will bring this back and ask that the Deputy get a response on the €414 million. That topic might be specific to the Health Vote which the Minister for Health might take.

The additional Ministers of State at Cabinet will be debated in the Seanad today. Before the Government was formed, there was much concern about the possibility of Departments being reconfigured and different areas of society requiring different people to have higher levels of responsibility. The Government is responding to demands where the 15 Minsters sitting at Cabinet allowed for by Bunreacht na hÉireann may no longer be fit for purpose given the range of demands across Government. I am sure this will be debated in the Seanad over the next few days.

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