Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was lucky enough to serve in the other House for two terms and, as a Minister of State and Chief Whip, I attended Cabinet. The responsibilities given to Ministers of State are delegated responsibilities, namely, legal responsibilities, and the requests that the Ministers make of them. Sometimes, that involves heading over to Brussels or some other location in Europe to attend sectoral meetings relevant to their Departments. The amount of time spent on these things can be quite high. The former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, commented on the change from his first term as Taoiseach to his second term of Taoiseach being exponential in terms of the amount of foreign travel. That is just indicative of the greater role of Europe. It is therefore necessary to have more Ministers of State to carry out this work.

It is important to note an ongoing issue, namely, whether Ministers of State actually get their responsibilities and delegated functions. It goes through the Cabinet for approval, so it is important that they get them. I would suggest that Ministers of State should be involved in budget negotiations with their Ministers concerning the issues they handle and that they be a vital part of the management board meetings that take place within each Department from time to time with the Secretary General, assistant principal officers and so on.

As the Cathaoirleach knows well, I often raised issues pertaining to Inland Fisheries Ireland during the previous Seanad. I will not dwell on those now, but had there been a Minister of State with responsibility for inland fisheries in the previous Government, we would have had the oversight that was necessary to manage the issues within the sector. That is absolutely the case. The then Minister, Mr. Ryan, had responsibility for two Departments but had no Minister of State within either with responsibility for communications, natural resources and inland fisheries. Had there been a Minister of State, as there will be now within the Department of the marine in the form of Timmy Dooley, there would be oversight and a go-to person to link in with that important issue. This is just one example. There are many other sectors equally, more or perhaps less important, but oversight would be required.

On the allowances, it stands to reason that, if one is getting a promotion in any walk of life, one is compensated for that. I was lucky enough to attend the Cabinet as Government Chief Whip for a number of years. As it happens, I did not get an allowance because it was not legislated for, and we did not push through legislation for that matter. It is important that the three Galway super juniors - Deputies Naughton, Grealish and Canney - and the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, get the additional allowance for attendance at Cabinet that I did not get. It is important they receive it because it is additional work and responsibility, including Cabinet responsibilities, and an additional overnight in Dublin the night before a Cabinet meeting.

I welcome the Bill. Being a Minister is a significant responsibility and one can see from time to time when issues arise and things go wrong, as they do - they will go wrong for somebody, mark my words, and I hope it is not the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins - that a Minister will be under pressure within the Department and from the Opposition. The pressures, including those on families, are huge. We have seen good people who, unfortunately, have had to resign from office as a result of the pressures and stresses of their positions, things they did, things they did not do or things they did in the past coming back to haunt them. There are significant responsibilities on everybody within this House, everybody in the other House and those in government who have been lucky enough to get positions as Ministers or Ministers of State.

I support the Bill, I commend it to the House and I pass over to Senator O'Reilly.