Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I touched on this issue earlier. The straight answer is that the Government has not yet made a decision. However, I am not in any way ruling out a good decision in this matter. I accept that, beyond being the Chief Whip for my party and for the Government, I have responsibilities to work as best as I can with the Whips from the other parties for the House. I have no doubt that my party is also concerned about the problem of getting information from the quangos and agencies we establish. A danger exists that many of these agencies do their own thing and we must address the matter of accountability.

I have work to do on this matter and I have an interest in finding a solution. I referred to it earlier in answering Deputy Stanton's query on written questions with regard to dealing, during non-sitting periods, with this matter of questions to Ministers being forwarded to agencies. Progress has been made in the discussions. If Deputies Deenihan, Stanton or Kehoe were in my position, they would also have to get their Government to sign off on this issue.

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