Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Back three years ago it was the case that members could indicate and say they had done a lot of work on a particular issue and would ask if they could lead on that issue. Somewhere along the line, a good while ago, we decided that it was strictly turnabout so I sat back then and just waited for my name to pop up. Sure enough it has not been popping up and that just occurred to me but I got a call last week to ask if I would be second speaker on a particular matter so I agreed and I asked the member of secretariat who called me what way that works now. I was informed that some members had expressed a special interest in a particular matter so they were the leads on that. I said that I did not really realise that rule had been reintroduced and if that is the rule that is fine, we will all be up early in the morning and pick the meetings that we want to be leads on. I certainly would have had an interest in the Irish Prison Service, for example, and I stayed on that evening to get extra time and that is fine. However, funnily enough I was told at that meeting that I was pencilled in to lead on the meeting of 7 March and I noticed that two colleagues are in for 7 March, ironically from the same party as me but I am sure that is coincidental. The identity of the witness for that meeting is not being lost on me and it is probably appropriate to mention the contents of a newspaper article last Sunday about a report being commissioned by two other committees which seemed to be about this committee and something of a co-ordinated effort to question the Committee of Public Accounts, its remit, its performance, the styles of individuals and all of that kind of stuff. Is the Chairman aware of-----