Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

The Government was formed on 22 January. The general election was at the end of November. A number of Opposition people habitually equate the general election date with the formation of Government date. It is a clever ploy but it is not the truth. The Government has only been in office since 22 January. It is a very short while. It might seem like longer to the Deputy but that is how short it has been. In many instances, during the previous Government, the junior Ministers were not all sorted within two to three weeks. By any yardstick, it took much longer. There were some fundamental changes in Departments, with tourism going to enterprise. That led to a broader change. Quite a number of the junior Ministers have delegated powers. Not every Minister of State gets a delegated legal authority. A mistake is often made that one requires legal delegations in order to perform certain duties. That is not the case.

For example, the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs historically has never had delegated authority-----

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