Vol. 432 No. 3
78 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Finance if, in the context of the current programme on the reform of Dáil Éireann, he will give details of the additional staff and resources that have been allocated, or will be allocated, to ensure that the committees are able to function efficiently; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The staffing of the individual committees to which the Deputy refers is being arranged, in part, through the reallocation of members of the Joint Staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas who had become available for reassignment in consequence of the termination of committees which existed during the term of the previous Dáil and the replacement elsewhere in the Office of an Assistant Principal. There is, in addition, an arrangement under which, following consultations involving the Chair of each committee, the Minister for Finance and the appropriate Minister, the secondment of suitably qualified officials to a committee will be arranged. This latter process has so far been initiated only in the case of one committee and is not yet complete.
To facilitate the production of reports of committee proceedings, I have sanctioned the recruitment of five additional transcribers and the holding of a competition, open to existing clerical staff in the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas, for a new grade of trainee transcribers from which it is hoped to make five appointments shortly.
