TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has defended the appointment of 20 Ministers of State and insisted that the number “is appropriate in terms of the responsibilities they have been given”.
He rejected claims by Labour leader Eamon Gilmore that Ministers of State were being “abused” by Cabinet Ministers who “repeatedly hide behind their Ministers of State when questions are put to them”.
Mr Cowen said “every Minister should seek, as a matter of courtesy, to be present in the House when a matter relevant to his or her department is being taken”.
When it was not possible for them to attend “their colleagues will reply to matters in their stead”.
Mr Gilmore said people questioned how the Government could argue that the reduction in the number of EU commissioners from 27 to 18 for a population of 500 million was for efficiency when “for a population of four million we have 15 Cabinet Ministers and 20 Ministers of State”.
His view was echoed by Arthur Morgan (SF, Louth), who also asked if the Taoiseach was “satisfied it is absolutely necessary to have 20 Ministers of State”.
The Taoiseach said he was “absolutely satisfied that, in order to discharge political accountability, two or three democratically- elected politicians . . . should be asked to run a department which may have many hundreds of thousands of people working for it”.
“I do not see what could be more respectful of our democratic institutions than to give political responsibility for running departments to politicians.”
Mr Cowen said they had “extensive and responsible jobs to do”, and “I do not think it is in the interests of politics for those who exercise the profession to denigrate their fellow members of the profession”.
He also said calls for Dáil reform are “usually a code for how we can continue the tennis match that goes on here every day”.
He said reform was a matter for all political parties, but too often reform was about “questions of where the balance of advantage lies rather than the merits of the reforms themselves”.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny described the situation as “farce”, and said “serious reforms” were required. The Government Chief Whip, Pat Carey, had responsibility for this matter, “but we have not yet seen the colour of his eyes in respect of it”.
Mr Cowen replied that the Government and the Chief Whip “will play a constructive role in exploring how we can improve procedures”.
However, he said unfortunately “reforms often provide further opportunities for a descent into theatrics”.
He said “we must not accept the idea that we are only relevant if we discuss issues that happen to be topical or are mentioned on morning radio programmes”.
“Parliament must find a balance between taking up issues of urgent public importance and maintaining its role as the main legislative and debating forum in the democratic life of the country.”
