Oireachtas committees will not be up and running for another month under an indicative timeline drawn up by the Houses of the Oireachtas and circulated to politicians.
A separate document outlining the proposed committees for the new term also shows that there will be a special committee convened on artificial intelligence – but it would not be able to meet until May 7th, according to the plan given to politicians.
The timeline document outlines that the Committee on Dáil Reform will meet on Wednesday to discuss the establishment of Dáil committees, and on Thursday, the process of selecting committee chairpersons will be run according to the D’Hondt method. This allocates political parties their choice of committees based on the size of their representations.
There will be a pause for the Easter break, before the Dáil reform committee meets to agree terms of reference on April 29th, according to the timeline, and then they will be approved by the Dáil on April 30th.
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The Dáil’s business committee will meet on May 1st to approve nominations of TDs to committees, before the Dáil appoints committee chairs and nominates deputies to committees on May 7th. At this point, the committees can be convened and hold hearings, albeit with TDs only.
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Later in the process, the Seanad will approve and nominate Senators to committees.
The main function of committees is to scrutinise legislation, meaning that for as long as they are not sitting, there is a legislative logjam building up. They also weigh in on the big issues of the day and produce reports on them – such as during the long-lasting controversy over RTÉ during the last Oireachtas, when committee hearings featuring former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy were screened live in pubs, such was the degree of public interest.
