Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I agree and nobody has any difficulty in principle with the Deputy's comments. However, the timeframe for submitting the detail required for all the information is relatively short. We must consider the matter and I am very conscious of the fact that we need to provide far better quality information everywhere we can.

We have been trying to explore other issues. We have questions to the Taoiseach two mornings a week but most people would agree that the current system is not entirely satisfactory. We need to see if there is a better way for the information requested and topics addressed to be processed in a timely fashion and in a way which would add information to the public domain.

Deputy Barrett spoke about the number of committees. As I stated in answer to Deputy Ó Caoláin, the current committees should be allowed to complete their work programme. Every committee feels it is doing a really good job but we should allow the existing committees complete their work, bearing in mind the cost reductions which have taken place. A number of committees are time-limited and will automatically cease to operate anyway.

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