Jobs committee proposed as part of Coalition's Dáil reform

THE ESTABLISHMENT of a high-powered jobs committee is among the measures the Government is proposing to introduce as part of its political and parliamentary reform agenda.

In a departure from the practice in the last Dáil, it is also planned to use the d’Hondt formula for selecting committee chairs and membership. This is already in operation in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

It is expected the new jobs committee will monitor and co-operate with the Departments of Enterprise, Social Protection and Education. There are likely to be 20 TDs and Senators on the jobs committee, which will have a significant role in overseeing and assessing the Government’s efforts to tackle unemployment.

The number of committees is to be reduced from 22 to 13 in a major rationalisation foreshadowed in the Fine Gael-Labour programme for government.

However, sources said health and children would remain a key committee in the new structure, as would justice and defence.

The Oireachtas committees on European affairs and on European scrutiny, which existed before the last general election, are likely to be subsumed into the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Three committees – Enterprise Trade and Innovation, Education and Skills, and Social Protection – are likely to be absorbed by the new jobs committee.

The Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children is expected to be subsumed by the Health and Children Committee.

Other possible measures include the amalgamation of the Climate Change and Energy Security Committee with Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

A new parliamentary body, provisionally titled the investigations, oversight and petitions committee, will be modelled on a similar group in the European Parliament, which considers petitions on issues of concern.

Any citizen of the EU, or any company, organisation or association, may, individually or in association with others, submit a petition to the European Parliament on a subject that comes within the EU’s fields of activity.

Since 2009, remuneration for the position of committee chairman or chairwoman has been cut from €20,023 to its current rate of €9,511. Previously, the positions were allocated in rough proportion to party strengths and after much haggling but this time it is proposed to use the strict mathematical formula developed by Belgian lawyer Victor d’Hondt.