David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

My contribution will be very focused. I wish to put a direct question to the Minister of State. Much of the discussion to date has related to the commission, its workings and its report. I posed two questions to the Minister of State earlier but he did not reply to either. These are the most pertinent questions that have been asked. The first relates to why the number of Deputies needs to be reduced. What is the reasoning behind reducing the number of Deputies by seven or eight? What are the Government's intentions in this regard? The Minister of State did not really provide answers in that regard.

My second question relates to the cost-----