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

To respond to Deputy Boyd Barrett, the Department of An Taoiseach is not a huge Department in terms of numbers given the range of co-ordinating work it does across so many other Departments. There is a bit of a myth about this. The Deputy made comments about this earlier.

The public service works extremely well and has worked particularly well during Covid-19. Many senior civil servants across the board have worked night and day and at weekends to cope with what has been an unprecedented challenge in many Departments. Advisers are important. The whole concept of what were then called programme managers was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a view to having a clear strong relationship where there is a coalition Government to get the programme for Government implemented. Political parties are elected on a programme of policies. There was a view prior to that period that many elements of political programmes did not get implemented as strongly or effectively as they could have. The Labour Party, and I mean this in a complimentary way, came up with the innovation of working with public servants. Public servants appreciate the work of advisers in prioritising political objectives as manifested in a programme for Government. The implementation of these priorities requires constant work and follow-through. This is important because government is not a technocratic exercise and it was never meant to be a technocratic exercise.

The idea of political advisers is not heresy. It is not about jobs for the boys. The Deputy is helping to create that perception by constantly saying that. I have no doubt that if Deputy Boyd Barrett were in government, he would want people who are ideologically close to his position helping and assisting him in making sure his ideological position on a range of issues was followed through and that people would have a clear understanding of what his priorities were. That is the purpose and objective of having special advisers. Everybody is working extremely hard, be they in an advisory capacity or in a Civil Service or public service capacity.

Deputy McDonald is no stranger to policy advisers either and Sinn Féin uses special advisers and has used them repeatedly in the Northern Ireland Executive. Former elected representatives are now advisers in the Northern Executive. This system has been in use in the North for some time. They had a critical role in the recent inquiry into the renewable heat energy project and they were central to all of that.

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I do not think people should be feigning surprise about the use of advisers. In the previous Government with Independents, there were again advisers representing Independent Ministers and Fine Gael.

There is a Cabinet co-ordination committee at which the three leaders meet in advance of the Cabinet meeting. It works to ensure that Cabinet agenda items are dealt with if there are particular issues around those items with which a political party might have an issue because of its beliefs and ideas. It works to ensure those issues get properly thrashed out and dealt with it. The various chiefs of staff in each party meet regularly to make sure there is agreement on issues where there may be competing views and beliefs. It is only natural in a three-party coalition Government that there will be parties who have stronger emphasis in some policy areas as opposed to others and vice versa. There actually is a need to work through various issues that arise from time to time. In the current climate with Covid-19, they arise frequently across the board in all sectors and Departments, requiring constant attention.

Regarding the leaving certificate issue, the overarching priority of the Government, the Minister for Education and Skills, the Tánaiste, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, along with the Minister, Deputy Harris, was the students. It was important that the full details of the issue around the code was ascertained, its implications, scale, volume and how it would apply. That was important rather than going half-cocked earlier publicly.

The Minister for Education and Skills handled this in the correct manner and dealt with it comprehensively. Obviously, the decision to have calculated grades arose from the decision not to have leaving certificate examinations because of the impact of Covid-19. That is why next year the Department's objective is to have the normal leaving certificate examinations back. Work is under way already to get to that situation. No one really wants to be in the position we were this year with a calculated grade system and the cancellation of the exams. It has been very challenging for this year's leaving certificate cohort because of all that has transpired. We are working in the best interests of the students concerned.

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