Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am not looking for an offer. If we are talking about an inclusive organisation we need to think about these things.

The sub-committee should review international best practices. I do not know whether it will be dissolved after the recommendations we are considering today have been dealt with - I am not a member of it - but we should look at how other parliaments around the world operate. Such a body of research could lead to other reforms. My views in this regard are informed by my experience as a spokesman on foreign affairs. Some of the work of Irish Aid, for example, involves enhancing democracy, accountability and transparency in other parliaments around the world. I suggest we need to focus on such matters here. I am glad we are talking about the establishment of a budgetary committee with support staff to help us to work on budgets. We provide assistance in this regard in other countries even though such supports are not provided in this Parliament. When I travel to different parts of the world, I find it bizarre when we say that best parliamentary practice involves something we do not do in this Parliament. I am pleased we are now talking about doing this.

As I am conscious that my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, is trying to get in, I will conclude by saying we need to make a change so that Ministers no longer reply to parliamentary questions and Topical Issue matters by reading from scripts without showing any flexibility. There has been an attempt to bring about such a change in recent times. If I am talking about the closure of a factory and the consequent loss of jobs, I do not want a script; I want to hear what the Minister is going to be able to do. If we cannot facilitate interaction with Ministers in such circumstances, we need to change the rules governing Topical Issue matters. I have much more to say on this issue, but I will give way to my colleague.

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