The Government’s latest set of Dáil reforms will cost €1 million a year and have staff deployment implications, the committee that oversees the running of the House has been told.
At a meeting of the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privileges on Thursday, Oireachtas officials told the members that the proposed changes would be expensive to implement.
Last week Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore announced a raft of changes to the Dáil timetable as part of ongoing reform measures.
The House will sit earlier on its three weekly sitting days, starting two hours earlier on Tuesday (12.30pm) and one hour earlier on Wednesday and Thursday (9.30am). There will be a Friday sitting every two weeks instead of the current one Friday sitting per month.
The committee was told that some staff, including ushers, are on three-day-week contracts and these would have to be changed to four days. Extra staffing hours would have to be provided to cover the extended sittings. The changes might also involve an examination of issues in light of the Haddington Road agreement.
