Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not prolong the point. We are talking about the level of the reduction. I did not know it had been introduced in 1996. Approximately 30 Government Members are Ministers or Ministers of State. By definition, they do not need the party's research to quite the same extent. I know they require it for political purposes or whatever else, but they have a lot of advice. However, most of the time of Ministers and Ministers of State is spent on their ministerial roles, for which they receive ample support from the public service. I accept that Government backbenchers should have facilities to draft Private Members' Bills, Topical Issues and so on. In view of the level of support available to the Government, I would have thought a reduction of one half would be more reasonable.