Michael Mulcahy (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

My first question is for the Minister of State and the Ceann Comhairle, as the head of the Oireachtas Commission. On the whole question of resources, I join in the praise for the herculean efforts of the staff of the scrutiny sub-committee and ask the Minister of State whether he accepts it is under-resourced in terms of the amount of work it has to do in terms of the detail it must follow through? When we tell our European colleagues about the small number of officials and experts that are on the sub-committee to do the work, they are absolutely astounded.

My second question is a broader one about the scrutiny of Council meetings. Deputy Treacy will know that as Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, he comes before the joint committee pre-GAERC, and we discuss Council meetings before they happen, which of course are not open to the public. Some of these are mentioned in questions that I was asked to highlight here——

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