Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be helpful here. When we were looking at proposals on how a committee would be established, as I said earlier we wanted to ensure that every group that wanted to be part of the committee and the debate could be. There were many proposals to use d'Hondt systems, which would have excluded some of the groups in the House. I rejected these because I wanted to bring forward a motion that would at least recognise that everyone in the Chamber, in terms of their group, would be represented on the committee. With regard to mandate and representation, from a percentage point of view the smaller groups have higher representation than the larger groups. Is it undemocratic that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil combined, the two largest parties which have a majority in terms of mandate, would have a majority on any committee? I do not think this is undemocratic. This is not a Government decision. It is a proposal on which Parliament, the Dáil and the Seanad, will make a determination, through a democratic vote today. What we are proposing here today is a motion on the 16 Members of the Dáil who will be on the committee. I take Deputy Ó Broin's point that his concern relates to the unusual step of naming a Chairman in the motion. There are other committees where there are agreements on who the chairperson will be. Take the Committee of Public Accounts, for example, whereby it is agreed-----

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