THE Labour leader, Mr Spring, issued the following statement last night on the Taoiseach's proposal that the Minister for Defence, Mr Andrews, should also have a responsibility for European Affairs under the direction" of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke:
"Earlier today I said in the House that I considered that the Taoiseach's extraordinary proposal to subordinate the Minister for Defence to the Minister for Foreign Affairs would require legislation to bring it into effect. Having had the opportunity to examine the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, I am now absolutely satisfied that my initial view is correct.
The simple fact is that the Departments of Defence and Foreign Affairs were established as separate, independent and equal Departments of State by the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924.)
The Act makes clear that the conduct of transactions between the Government and any other Government is a matter for the Minister for Foreign Affairs and not for any other Minister.
The powers of the Government to transfer responsibility from one Minister to another are crystal clear, and are spelled out in an amending Act of 1939. The Government is authorised to transfer business from one Minister to another, but it is clear that business taken from one Minister to another can't be exercised by both simultaneously. This is in stark contrast to the provisions for appointing Ministers of State, which expressly require the supervision by a senior Minister of his or her junior.
There is, in short, no power whatsoever for the Government to provide that the acts of one Minister would be under the direction of another Minister. The Taoiseach's speech today simply cannot be lawfully put into effect, without the introduction and passing of a Bill to that effect."