Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

Parts of the legislation the Deputy refers to is being prepared. I have spoken to the Attorney General about such legislation that we will bring forward in the future. When the Taoiseach spoke about this issue, which is in the programme for Government, and the Labour Party also referred to it in its pre-election manifesto, he spoke about making committees stronger and more relevant. That is something I would like to see happen but pieces of legislation will be required to make some of the committees stronger and more meaningful.

The committees we are proposing to go forward with are being signed off. I hope I will have them signed off entirely by tomorrow or the end of this week. There will be a larger number of members on each of the committees. They will include Deputies and Senators, and they will be resourced fully. As there will be half the number of committees that were in the 30th Dáil I would hope the same number of staff members involved in all the committees can be combined, but that is a matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas through the commission, which will be set up shortly to make sure that the committee system is fully resourced and that they will work in a different way than was the case in the past.

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