David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I will deal specifically with that point because I have made a number of charges against the Government and the Minister in earlier contributions on the basis of the reason the Government is proposing to reduce the number of Deputies to perhaps 153 or less. The Leader of House said proposal did not go far enough and that perhaps the figure should be 120. I posed a question which I will pose again to receive a direct response from the Minister of State. Why is the change being proposed now? What is the logic behind it? What difference would it make if we had seven or eight fewer Deputies? How would it improve the workings of the Dáil? I do not see how it would.

The charge I made was that this was simply an exercise in delivering on what was a rushed pre-election promise by the Fine Gael Party which seemed to be in competition with the Labour Party in seeking Fianna Fáil held seats. That is what this is about. I fail to see how having six or seven fewer Deputies would make any real difference in the general scheme of things. I must pose the question again because I have not received a response from the Minister of State.

We have talked about the commission, but the question of why the change has been proposed has not been addressed by the Minister of State. He might enlighten us in this regard. Is cost as factor? That is one of the reasons we hear mentioned in public commentary. There is an element of populism, that such a change would result in a reduction of costs. If that is the case, there is a great deal more that could be done to reduce costs. I made a number of points in that respect which I will not repeat, but we have brought forward proposals as to how that objective could be achieved.