Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I agree with the Deputy. I am conscious that we do not spend all our careers on one side of the House. I have always been of the view that there is a need for better interaction between Ministers and committees. It is unfortunately the case that committee chairmen sometimes pursue a certain agenda and there does not seem to be much synergy between those agendas and that of the Executive, and there is little concern for the timeliness of discussions. This means there may be a disjointed view of events and an absence of sequencing in terms of what is happening at committees and where Government policy is in terms of execution or implementation.

It would be better to apply our minds to seeing how committees, which are independent of the Executive——

See this speech in context