Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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To be practical, it is virtually impossible for a public representative to say that we will not end up talking to somebody somewhere. We need to separate our hats and draw a distinction between being public representatives and being on this committee. We are not on the committee to represent them but to express views based on the data that will be before the committee. We should not negate our role as politicians in our daily life, but we are not coming to committee meetings representing those whom we meet in any shape or form.

Since I was appointed spokesperson on health more than two weeks ago, I have been inundated with people who want to meet to talk about this committee. Everybody will be faced with this issue. May I make a practical suggestion? I would like collective agreement on a template for written submissions so that those who wish to communicate with the committee can use the template and send in written submissions directly. We should encourage everybody to use the template in their communications with the committee so that their submissions can be put up online and everybody can read them. We have to have practical strategies on how to get through the volume of work. With a template we would know the structure and size of each document, and it would lead to consistency. I strongly encourage the use of a template.