Minute from Maurice Moynihan to John A. Costello (Dublin)
(S13055)

Taoiseach,
I attach a copy of a memorandum¹ for the Government from the Minister for External Affairs recommending that an independent statutory corporation should be established to perform the functions now discharged by the Forestry Division of the Department of Lands and that the corporation should be given such further powers as may be deemed necessary for the achievement of a national forest plan for planting a minimum of 25,000 acres a year. The memorandum is stated to have been prepared by the Minister for External Affairs at the request of the Government.

According to the replies on the accompanying Form B, neither the specific nor the general sanction of the Minister for Finance has been obtained and the agreement of the Department of Lands, of which the Forestry Division forms a part, has not been secured.

You will recall that recently we received a memorandum from the Minister for External Affairs on the subject of the review of protective measures for industry. Following a submission which I made to you in that regard, you decided that the memorandum should be treated as a personal communication to you, that it should not be circulated, and that the matter should not be put on the Cabinet Agenda.²

The whole question of orderly procedure in the transaction of Government business again arises here. As I pointed out in the previous case to which I have referred, the Constitution, in Article 28.12, contemplates the distribution of business amongst Departments of State and the designation of members of the Government to be the Ministers in charge of those Departments. The law governing these matters is to be found in the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, and under those Acts Forestry is a branch of administration assigned to the Minister for Lands. The Cabinet Procedure Instructions, which were approved by the Government on the 27th February last, require that every item for the Agenda should be the subject of a memorandum 'from the responsible Minister'.

There is, of course, no doubt that a Minister is in the first place a member of the Government: that is his primary capacity, and his secondary capacity is that of a Minister in charge of a particular Department of State. There can be no question of the right of a Minister, as a member of the Government, to put before his colleagues his views on Government policy affecting any branch of administration, whether in his own or any other Department. But if a practice were to be accepted whereby Ministers would make direct submissions to the Government on matters primarily concerning Departments which have been assigned to other members of the Government, difficulties of the gravest character would inevitably develop.

Apart from any other consideration, it is clear that, if the facts and opinions affecting a proposal are to be properly and adequately represented to the Government, the proposal must be submitted by the Minister in charge of the Department mainly concerned, who has at his immediate disposal the knowledge and experience of expert advisers. Only in this way can there be a reasonable assurance against decisions that might give rise, in practice, to serious administrative and financial difficulties and that might cause irreparable damage before they could be amended.

When a member of the Government who is not the Minister departmentally concerned desires to have his views on a particular matter fully considered, the proper procedure for him is to communicate those views to the member of the Government to whom the Department affected has been assigned by the Taoiseach. This Minister can then examine his colleague's suggestions, with the assistance of his own departmental advisers, and give directions for the necessary consultation with the Department of Finance and any other Departments concerned before making a submission to the Government. In this way the vitally important principle that every submission to the Government should be made by the responsible Minister would be preserved.

If you approve the foregoing views, you will perhaps think it proper to discuss the matter with the Minister for External Affairs personally and to suggest to him that he should proceed on the lines indicated in the preceding paragraph of this minute. This would mean that, instead of submitting his memorandum on forestry to the Government himself, he would send it to the Minister for Lands and ask that Minister to consider it and to make a submission to the Government in regard to it in accordance with the approved Cabinet Procedure Instructions.

Pending your decision, I am withholding the memorandum from circulation.