Professor David Farrell:

This goes to the point I was making earlier about a secretly elected Ceann Comhairle with an agenda to review the Standing Orders so that the Dáil takes much greater control over its affairs as a Chamber, and similarly in the case of the Seanad. It should be up to the Dáil to come up with its own rules to address issues like this. As I am sure Deputy Doherty knows, if one puts together all the Independents in all the parliaments in Europe there would be less than we have in the Dáil.