Departments should be separate

REORGANISING the government departments and combining some of them makes sense from organisational and efficiency points of view.

However, combining the Departments of Justice and Defence under one minister is a dangerous development in a democracy. There are certain essential elements of protection in democracies that include the separation of powers between the executive (ie government), the legislators (parliamentarians), and the judiciary.

In addition, in Ireland the military have always been subordinated to the civil power, and can only act in support of the gardaí unless martial law is declared.