Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

With respect, I cannot read the Taoiseach's mind. That is for others in his party to do. As a Member of Parliament who has sat on committees and who regularly attends committees, I make the case. I also should confess an interest in that it is a matter upon which I, as an academic, have written.

It is really absurd to be using the committees the way we are. One of the committees on which I served for more than a decade and a half has been governed more by the availability of a room than by the importance of the issue. The committees are governed by the availability of a room and the availability of staff, minutes published six or seven months later etc. I am simply saying it does not matter. Because we got away with it before in a bad way is no excuse for saying that now, at the beginning of a new session, we must do it in the same old, deadly bad way.

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