Rabbitte condemns number of committees as absurd

IT IS “absurd and ridiculous” that the Dáil has 24 committees when there are only 166 TDs, Labour’s Pat Rabbitte has said.

Despite an all-party recommendation to cut the number of committees to 15, they were all still in place and “there is no way a House with 166 members can support 24 committees. It is absurd and ridiculous and the only reason for their existence is that the former taoiseach wanted to give everybody who was not awarded a Ministry of State a chairmanship and stipend to keep them happy. He started to distribute stipends for deputy chairmen and convenors.”

Mr Rabbitte said it was “remarkable that we have this elaborate committee structure, yet we cannot replicate a DIRT inquiry” on the banking system, “the largest crisis that has ever affected this economy”.

He was speaking during a debate on the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) Bill introduced by Minister of State Peter Power, who said its main purpose was to provide €360 million for the running of the commission for the next three years. The commission pays the salaries and allowances of TDs and Senators, staff salaries, certain pensions and other facilities for the working of Leinster House.

Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton believed just enough funds for the next nine months should be provided during which time “there would be a review of the extent to which we are delivering value effectively for the money we spend”.

He said “the Oireachtas is demanding 65 per cent more in resources than five years ago, but in every one of these areas we are witnessing less genuine productivity and less scrutiny”. He pointed out that “over the past five years the staffing levels within the Houses have increased by 43 per cent. There are the same number of politicians, but the budget has increased by 65 per cent, equivalent to €54 million.” The Bill gave an opportunity to question the effectiveness of politics in Leinster House and he asked how they could go “from the bottom of the fourth division to the top of the first”. The solution he said was “first, we have to follow the money, which is something we have abysmally failed to do. Second, we must hold power to account, which we have also failed to do. Third, we must offer some leadership at this time.” He condemned the Government’s “lazy habit of setting up an agency for every problem” which had “blind-sided the Dáil in many cases”. The HSE and Fás were bodies “that cannot be held to proper scrutiny”.

Minister of State Dick Roche said “the evolution of quangos during the past 10 or 15 years has cost us tens of millions of euros. Virtually every one of the quangos created did not need to be created.”