Seán Barrett
Ceist:65 Mr. S. Barrett asked the Minister for Finance if new committees of the House will be staffed by officials attached to the Houses of the Oireachtas to ensure independence from Government Departments.
Written Answers. - Oireachtas Committees.
It has generally been the practice that Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas have been serviced by staff who are attached to the Houses of the Oireachtas and who during any period of service with those Committees are subject to the jurisdiction of the Ceann Comhairle. It is not the intention of the Government to depart from that principle.
It is also essential to the proper and effective operation of Committees that the staff available to those Committees should have the background knowledge and expertise to service the particular remit of the Committee and for that reason arrangements have been made from time to time for the secondment to the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas of suitable personnel from other parts of the civil service.
As the Deputy knows, few of the Joint Committees or Committees of either House are standing Committees and the number and functions of Committees have been known to change from one Dáil to another. In these circumstances, secondment arrangements also make it easier for the Houses which have a relatively young cadre of senior staff to readjust to new situations without resort to measures which might adversely affect the morale of the staff.