Seanad debates

Thursday, 17 October 2002

Parliamentary Committees: Motions.

 

There is a problem in relation to the numbers proposed by the Dáil – as Senator O'Toole said, we are left with a situation where there is a difficulty in filling places. The selection of four Senators will leave a problem, as I understand the Government will have two automatic places and the Opposition will have two. The Fine Gael group has 15 Senators and there are 13 committees proposed. As we are entitled to one place as of right on committees, two of our Members will not be members of any committee. That is a difficulty for us, as in some areas of responsibility two Departments have been brought together and our spokespersons in those areas may not automatically be members of a committee because we have only one place as of right. That is our difficulty with this. Each Fine Gael Senator cannot automatically be a member of a committee. If the Government wants to give us places we will accept them, but that is not likely to happen.

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