Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

It is not agreed to. What was presented on Tuesday and again this morning represents a travesty of democracy. We are being asked this morning to approve motions on changes to the orders of reference of select committees such that "11 members", as originally intended, would become "13 members" in two instances only in order to accommodate one party political representation in this House. I have no objection to that in principle but I must insist on parity of esteem and equality of treatment of all elected voices and parties in this Chamber, including Independent Deputies. We are being asked, in relation to the appointment of members of committees, to approve lists of representatives of the various parties in this House. This process has been deeply flawed from the beginning. Responsibility for it rests in the first instance with the Government, specifically the Chief Whip and his office.

With all respect, the catalyst for the confusion and gamesmanship that has been taking place with regard to the appointment of committee members and access to committees has been the presentation of the 6:4:1 formula whereby every committee has six Government members, four Fine Gael members and one Labour Party member. This outrageous proposition totally ignored the right of smaller parties and Independents to take up their rightful places as members of committees. This is not something to smirk about — it is a very serious matter. Any examination or scrutiny of the working of democracy in this Chamber will be judged on how the smaller groupings are treated. That is a fact. It is a great disappointment to me. It only fuels the sense that the larger parties are able to carry on as they like because little attention is paid to them. I appeal to the media to examine factually what has been happening here. That the media has not informed the citizens of Ireland about what is happening in respect of this issue represents a fundamental failure on its part.

It has been proposed to appoint a few Deputies to three committees and many Deputies to two committees. One of Sinn Féin's four Deputies has not been offered membership of or access to any committee. I understand that the same thing has happened to another Deputy. I have represented my party as Sinn Féin's health spokesperson in this Chamber for many years. I indicated to the Chief Whip and the various representatives of the other main Opposition parties — Fine Gael and the Labour Party — that it is my earnest wish to serve as a member of the Joint Committee on Health and Children, but I have not been accommodated. Instead, "champions of health issues" from my constituency are being given access to the committee, to my exclusion. There are just three Opposition health spokespersons in this Chamber — Deputies James Reilly and Jan O'Sullivan and myself. It is intolerable that I am not being given an opportunity to play a full role, in tandem with the two Deputies I have mentioned, in challenging the Government on its record of failure on health.

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