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Dáil
‹ Order of Business

Government Department responsibilities

Summary

Joan Burton questions the absence of environment, culture and science in Department titles and asks about delayed legislation. The Taoiseach says the functions remain covered, explains the new departmental structure and confirms the Technological Universities and school admissions Bills are progressing.

When will we know whether we will have a Minister for the environment? Does the Taoiseach agree that while a Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government is certainly appropriate, having no Minister with the title "environment" in Government, given the age in which we live, is a mistake in the programme for Government? Equally, culture has disappeared, the arts are downgraded and science has vanished from the title of any office holder in Government. When are we likely to know what the working titles of the different Departments will be?

There are two Bills of which I did not hear mention in the list outlined by the Taoiseach but which are very important to people. Regarding the schools admissions Bill, many people, particularly in urban areas, do not want their children's access to school to be entirely determined by their religious profession. What does the Taoiseach propose to do? That Bill was left ready by the previous Minister for Education and Skills.

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Could the Deputy conclude, please?

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Similarly, very important for rural and regional development, the Technological Universities Bill is again almost finished, but I did not hear it mentioned in the list outlined by the Taoiseach.

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I ask the Taoiseach to be brief, please.

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Enda Kenny The Taoiseach Fine Gael

Maybe the Deputy did not hear me correctly. It is on the list, at No. 13 today, to be restored to the Order Paper. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is at a meeting of Ministers for culture in Brussels today. The arts have not been downgraded. The progress of the school admissions Bill will continue. I recently had a bilateral meeting with the Minister for Education and Skills. That will be part of a normal process.

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When will it be finalised?

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Enda Kenny The Taoiseach Fine Gael

The main issue during the run-in to the election was about housing, planning and local government. The priorities were housing and homelessness. It was therefore practical to transform the previous Department into the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. Out of that former Department came the question of the environment, central to which is climate change, an area that has now been moved to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. If people want to add the word "environment" to the title, that is fine by me. Deputy Burton is well aware that action is much more important than names or words.

I have listened to this business of the arts being downgraded for the last three weeks now. The arts are not being downgraded. In fact, more money was put into that sector and that Department over the last 18 months than for very many years. We want to maintain the importance of the sector. Titles are one thing but action and effectiveness are something else. Regardless of whether we restore a name or continue with the word "Environment" in the name of a Department, the central feature is climate change, which is much more important in the context of what we are trying to do in Europe and at home, with all the consequences that follow.

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