Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

On consultation with the Opposition on the setting up of committees, I had a special debate here in the Dáil to give the Opposition Members an opportunity to discuss fully their proposals on the number of committees and so on. The debate held in the House was meaningful but not that many Deputies spoke about the committees that should be formed, those that should be sacrificed and the committees that should be combined. I thought there would have been more views expressed on that in the debate.

I hope to announce before the end of this week the number of committees. I can assure the Deputy that the Good Friday Agreement committee will not be sacrificed. There will be a full committee to carry out the work that has been done previously, and the work that will be done in coming years on the Good Friday Agreement. I assure the Deputy that we will have a stand alone committee for the Good Friday Agreement.

On the setting up of the Oireachtas commission, I have spoken to the Taoiseach on that and I would hope the Taoiseach will announce through the Houses of the Oireachtas the setting up of the Oireachtas commission within the next ten days. It is hoped we will have announced everything on the committee system and the Oireachtas commission by the end of the following week. I have no doubt that Members opposite have an appetite to get involved in the committee structure in the House and in the workings of the committees and bring forward some of their ideas but I have set out a programme for the committees to work for the first three or four weeks. The Taoiseach spoke about the chairpersons of bodies and so on coming before different committees to outline their plans and proposals on what they want to bring to the chairmanship of the new bodies.

See this speech in context