Professor David Farrell:

I think it would be useful for a committee to have additional freedom to control its own affairs. With all due respect to the Chairman of this committee, because chairmanship and, for the most part, membership of a committee is effectively in the gift of the Government of the day this means that because the whole agenda of Parliament is controlled by the Government, the agendas of the committees are controlled by the Government. All of this needs to change. We need to move more towards a continental European consensus approach. In this regard, I am not speaking about what happens in the United States of America, rather I am speaking about the type of powerful committees in place in north European countries. It is not about giving committees additional power; it is more about giving them greater control. The Deputy is correct; as I set out in my paper, there is already quite a degree of power available to committees.

There is quite a degree of power available to committees. They can take oral and written evidence. They can send for persons and papers. They can draft recommendations for legislative change. They can engage specialists or technical knowledge. There is a list and I have only given the committee a flavour. There is sufficient power.

There is another thing in the mix. We need to change the mindset, with all due respect, of committee members and alert them to the need to take their committee role seriously. That matter needs to be addressed.