Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am dealing exclusively with amendment No. 13 in Deputy Donnelly's name, to amend section 11 which concerns the power of a committee to make a proposal to conduct a Part 2 inquiry. The amendment, which I find extraordinary, is that one quarter of a committee can make that determination, overruling three-quarters of the committee. That is fundamentally wrong. It is a tyranny. The Deputy is curing what he perceives to be a frailty that a majority could block something by giving a minority the right to be very partisan and hold committees of inquiry into any Minister any time it likes. That would be an extraordinary situation.