Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not know about more money but the spending of money must be better in order to resource the committee system. That will require a change in mindset. There is an enormous volume of work undertaken at committee level that does not get a line anywhere but something abusive uttered in the plenary session would garner a headline. I do not have a simple solution to get attention for the grinding work of committee that often goes unreported. We must ensure that Deputies get some profile or they will not spend endless hours in a committee. As I have stated, I worked on a justice committee fadó that dealt with a number of pieces of legislation, with one criminal justice Bill taking months on end to get through. We were endlessly in committee and three of the Opposition spokespersons and the Whip of the committee lost their seats.