Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Section 8(43)(1) provides that the Minister must follow a detailed process which includes going to Government regarding schemes and programmes. That provision is included because not all these programmes will be relevant to a particular Minister's Department. Some will relate to the Department of Education and Science and others may relate to the Department of Health and Children. For example, assessment as regards disability would take place at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform or the Department of Health and Children. Different Departments are given tranches of schemes and programmes to apply. They will then follow the instructions given. The question that then arises is whether each matter should be referred to its line Minister only or to Government which, in the interests of joined-up government, checks that matters were dealt with according to the programmes agreed? That is the nub of the matter. The Bill clearly states that all programmes must have regard to all the different criteria, including the Government's final decision. The purpose of the final Government decision is to ensure that each line Department and agency fulfilled what was agreed in the first place. It cannot be left to a single Minister, as he or she cannot have control over various Departments. The only body with an overview is the collective Government.

Not everything done under this will be under the remit of the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. ADM, with its small staff, in trying to cover all areas of expertise, such as disability and social and economic issues, has shown what a mammoth task it is. It has dealt with it manfully. I do not want to criticise it but I know the limits of its expertise. Section 8, which, inter alia, amends section 44 of the principal Act, must be read in the context of the source being the Government, under the provision of section 43(1), deciding a programme and having the final say whether it adhered to the agreed programme.

I understand the matter of concern to Senator Ryan and I will examine it when the Bill is taken in the Dáil as I am sure the Senator's colleagues will raise it. If I can come up with a way of dealing with what the Senator fears without cracking the nut with the proverbial sledgehammer I will take it on board. It must be remembered that the Minister must publish the decisions and everyone will know what was recommended for these bodies. If the Government, without good reason, was to act contrary to the recommendations made, everyone would know. It is well known that I do not make the individual decisions on the RAPID programmes. My Department merely checks they were completed to the given criteria. However, if a call has to be made on a case, it has universal application to the other areas. In that context, the Government would collectively act as it will not affect just one Department. There is no malevolence in this proposal. The process is all connected and it is not a case of the Government coming in at the end of it.