Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are a parliamentary committee. A booklet was issued very early this morning, and my local radio station was able to give it to me before I, as a member of this committee, received it. Could it not have been arranged that the documents would issue to us on Friday so that we would have the weekend to study them? People talk about serious and detailed parliamentary scrutiny, but how are we meant to do that if the documents are bounced at us at the last minute? I have consistently objected over the years to people coming before a committee and giving documents at the last minute looking for urgent perusal or decisions on matters. Sometimes I come to Dublin on Monday night, but I happened to travel up this morning instead of last night. That is a three-hour journey. Obviously I could not print the document while I was on the way, so I could not print it until I got to Leinster House. That is totally unsatisfactory. I just do not understand how once again we have wound up in this mess. It is not for the first time. If the Department could not produce the documents on time, why did it not ask for a deferral of the meeting so that we could peruse the documents in detail? Through the good graces of the Chairman and the rest of the committee, in the hour we have been discussing the documents, many interesting questions have arisen that I could not have asked if I had not had an opportunity to read the document in detail.