Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

We must pay tribute to the incredible work that has been done by the sub-committee, as well as by the various joint committees which consider the documents and directives which are referred to them. The figures quoted in the report are quite startling. In the four years since 2002, approximately 1,452 documents of one type or another have passed through the hands of the sub-committee. Some 75%, or 329 of the 440 documents which were considered in 2005 were legislative documents, such as directives, regulations or decisions. For the sub-committee to examine such an enormous number of legislative provisions requires an incredible amount of work. I often wonder whether the sub-committee, and the various joint committees to which the various matters are referred, are properly resourced to deal with such a workload. One could contrast the sub-committee's workload with the number of Bills which have been passed in this House over the last four years since the Government took office.

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