Last week, amid all the speculation about whom the Taoiseach would promote, there was a lot of talk about geography and, clearly, that has influenced his decision-making around that. Does the Taoiseach accept that this promotes the practice of parish pump politics, or certainly the perception of it, where a Minister and holding ministerial office are more about delivering goodies for your constituency than about considering the public good? Does he accept that Ministers must have a national remit and that they should be fully accountable for the spending of public money? Will the Taoiseach give a commitment that he will draw up guidelines for all his Ministers on the announcement of funding for particular projects or the location of particular public infrastructure such that those decisions will be taken on the basis of objective decision-making-----

Thank you, Deputy. You are way over time.

-----and that there would be a rationale for those decisions?

I call the Taoiseach to respond.

I would welcome the Taoiseach's commitment to doing that.

I assure Deputy Shortall that I appointed people both to Cabinet and as Ministers of State based on their ability. Obviously, leaders and taoisigh can consider a variety of issues. I would point to gender. Every female Fine Gael TD seeking re-election is now a Minister or Minister of State, so that is a commitment to gender. Geography does have an important role to play in politics - it is not all just the greater Dublin area - and having different perspectives brought to the Cabinet table and decision-making tables is important. I do not think there is a need for new guidelines on this, but I will lead a Government that will adhere to the public spending code and will of course put a rationale and criteria in place as regards our spending decisions.