Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach when he plans to establish new Cabinet committees; and the committees which will be established. [29980/17]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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9. To ask the Taoiseach the Cabinet committee meetings that he has attended since he was appointed. [31015/17]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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10. To ask the Taoiseach when he plans to establish new Cabinet committees; and the committees which will be established. [31171/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 to 10, inclusive, together.

All Cabinet committees stand dissolved at the very end of every Government's term in office. I expect that the Government will shortly establish a small number of Cabinet committees to deal with specific aspects of policy, which I will chair.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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It is the Taoiseach's intention to continue the practice of chairing all of the Cabinet committees. That is interesting to know. The function of these committees is to ensure that policy is developed and implemented which reflects the Government's programme for Government. This system and the time restrictions which are simply implemented really do not afford us the latitude to question all of those matters in the way that we might. There is also the issue of Cabinet confidentiality and I recognise its necessity and value, but it is difficult to get under the bonnet of these committees as they similarly enjoy that privilege. Has the Taoiseach considered not just the establishment of Cabinet committees, but the workings of them and better mechanisms to report back here to the Dáil for scrutiny by all of us?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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During the recent Fine Gael leadership campaign, the media was told that the Taoiseach intended to make "radical" transformative changes to the nature and role of Cabinet committees. From what I have heard, the most radical move seems to be to get rid of some of them or to bury them altogether. The Taoiseach may have reason for that. I have a question on some Cabinet committees. If one looks at the last Government in the last five years, the Cabinet committee on health has been an outstanding failure. This is the committee that cleared a White Paper, which had no costs or implementation schedules and was ultimately abandoned within two years of its publication, on universal health insurance. It insisted that HSE service plans would commit to levels of service that were impossible to deliver with the provided funding. To put it bluntly, there is a huge question mark around the Cabinet committee on health and how it works, and indeed others as well, particularly on housing. The help-to-buy scheme was launched with great fanfare last year. The Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, was entirely confident about it. He was warned that it would inflate house prices. Ultimately, the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, agreed with Deputy Michael McGrath to a review of that. We learned within 12 months that the new Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has a very negative view of the help-to-buy scheme and is contemplating its abolition.

4 o’clock

I take the Taoiseach's point that he will either reduce the Cabinet subcommittees in size or have fewer of them, but it is difficult to ascertain how effective they have been in terms of decisive policy interventions that have made a difference to the biggest crises that are facing the country.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Notwithstanding that there have been policy failures in multiple areas by this Government, the principle of Cabinet subcommittees is a good one because it allows for joined-up thinking between different Departments. I want to ask again about the need for a Cabinet subcommittee in the area of education. We did not have one in the previous Government and it is critical that we have one for multiple reasons. There is a lot of controversial issues emerging. Education, it goes without saying, is a very important area.

In particular, as I have said to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Education and Skills, there is a very serious threat to the facilities of schools throughout the country because of religious control of schools and school lands. To my mind, playing pitches and recreational areas around school are not an optional extra. They are critical for all sorts of health reasons and to allow for the expansion of schools, and yet we have discovered in many schools, such as Clonkeen College in my own area, religious orders are flogging off their lands at the expense of the quality of the education and amenities provided to school students. The Government is letting it happen.

There needs to be a serious policy discussion at a high level within the Government about the threat this represents to school facilities. I have said I believe that compulsory purchase powers have to be used to prevent the religious orders, who are accountable to nobody, flogging off playing fields and recreational areas for schools all over the country. I would ask the Taoiseach to seriously consider that instead of merely saying it is nothing to do with the Government, the religious orders are private entities and the Government does not have any control. This is what we are getting and it is a threat to the quality of the education that is available to our young people.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I call the Taoiseach. We have just over four minutes. Sorry, does Deputy Burton want to make a short contribution?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Sorry, I am taking a question for Deputy Howlin.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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Can I stop Deputy Burton there? Deputy Howlin's question is not in this group. It is in the next, Questions Nos. 11 and 12. These are Deputies Micheál Martin, Boyd Barrett and-----

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Is the Acting Chairman taking Question No. 11 separately?

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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We are dealing with Questions Nos. 8 to 10, inclusive. We are not taking Question No. 11.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Acting Chairman has allowed other Members to do that.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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Sorry?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Acting Chairman has allowed other Members to take other Cabinet matters on board.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I have not.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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No. We are on Cabinet committees.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We are on Cabinet committees.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I have not. Not in this case. I call the Taoiseach and we have just over three minutes.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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He said he is included.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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No.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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To answer some of the questions, it is my intention to chair the Cabinet committees myself but clearly on occasion the Tánaiste may chair some of them in my absence.

Cabinet subcommittees are useful in general. They allow the Taoiseach and other Ministers to be across what is happening in a lot of different Departments and they can be useful in troubleshooting issues before they get to Cabinet so that they can then be agreed by Cabinet once they have been agreed and teased out at Cabinet subcommittee level.

Overall, there are too many. There are ten at present. That is too many, and too many people attend them. There can be 30 to 40 attending Cabinet subcommittee meetings.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Thirty to 40.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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On occasion, yes. One could have the Taoiseach, Ministers, Ministers of State, their senior officials and their advisers. It would not be unusual for 25 people, 30 people or so to attend Cabinet subcommittees. That is not the best way of doing things.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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That explains a lot.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I intend to change it. I expect there will be fewer Cabinet subcommittees, probably, approximately five. There will be an economic focused one, one focused on public services and social policy, another on EU affairs and international affairs, another on infrastructure and housing, and probably, we will retain a dedicated one on health given the high priority that will be attached to that. I will have many fewer people attending them, meeting in different formats.

I am also doing a lot more on a bilateral level. For example, yesterday I met bilaterally with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, their Secretary General and their adviser. I also met the Minister of Stat, Deputy Finian McGrath, on disability issues with his three Secretary Generals. I will be doing that a lot more - meeting bilaterally with Ministers to try and drive the agenda and get things done.

I will also have longer Cabinet meetings. For example, there will be two Cabinet meetings next week because there will be a special Cabinet meeting to deal with the summer economic statement. Something like that deserves full consideration by the Cabinet for two or three hours, and not being one of 28 or 50 items at a regular meeting.

There will also be full-day Cabinet meetings. The first full-day Cabinet meeting will deal with climate change and the Government's actions on that in the morning and then the capital plan in the afternoon.

Those are the kind of changes that I intend to make. We will see how they work out. The key is to troubleshoot problems and drive the agenda, and that is what I will try and do.