Professor David Farrell:

I can talk about the generality rather than that case. I do not know the case. I think it is extremely important. That is why I was saying we should move away from the idea that Members are sitting on more than one committee, but also moving towards the idea of committee weeks. The European Parliament shows how that can work very effectively - move away from the idea of long plenaries as being the main agenda for how the Dáil or Oireachtas works and move to committee weeks so that then there is no excuse. One is on the one committee. This is the week in which the committee meets. More normally than not, one should be at that committee.