asked the Minister for the Environment in view of the McKinsey Report's recommendation that responsibility for road transportation be transferred to the Department of Transport, whether he envisages the road sections of An Foras Forbartha being transferred directly or indirectly and placed under the responsibility of that Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

No decisions have yet been taken on the recommendations of the McKinsey Report.

Can the Minister give the House any indication as to when such a decision might be taken?

No, the Deputy is aware that the McKinsey report is a source of public debate and there will be no final decisions on it other than the decision to publish. There are no formal Government decisions on it.

I think the Minister would agree that the McKinsey report is of public concern, particularly to people working in CIE. Since it does concern indirectly a section of An Foras Forbartha if this proposal is implemented, can the Minister indicate whether the review body to which he referred yesterday at Question Time are taking into account the recommendations of the McKinsey report?

Obviously it would be the role of the review body to take all the matters into consideration. However, the implications of McKinsey range right across the broad spectrum of public life generally, administration in CIE, the Department of the Environment and the Department of Transport, so it would be wrong to make decisions on pieces of it rather than the whole.

A final supplementary.

Is the Minister suggesting to the House that no decision should be made on any section of the McKinsey report until a decision is made on the whole lot of it?

At this stage in the McKinsey report as it relates to my own Department, that is the section relating to the transfer of responsibilities for roads to the Department of Transport, no decisions have been taken.