Are Oireachtas committee members doing their job properly?

As the Dáil returned from the Christmas recess this week, the main action was not in the chamber itself but in the committee rooms of Leinster House.

The environment committee and the public accounts committee (PAC) both called in Irish Water to discuss the controversy over the new semi-state's €85 million spend in consultants, while the PAC also investigated the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) and the St Vincent's Hospital group.

The PAC hearings on the CRC demonstrated effective parliamentary democracy in action, but overall it was a mixed week for the committees.

In particular, there was no need for the PAC to summon Irish Water barely 24 hours after the environment committee had done so and there is a suspicion that some of its members are attaching themselves to every passing scandal.

But the PAC really sunk its teeth into the CRC, proving what it can do when it is focussed on a particular issue.

Independent TD Shane Ross has led the charge in the PAC on the CRC and top-ups, but even he looked slightly uninterested at the Irish Water hearings.

Strictly speaking, the PAC can only examine spending that comes under the Comptroller and Auditor General's remit and it had no authority to call in Irish Water. The PAC and other Oireachtas committees need to respect the remits of the various committees and let them get on with their work.

It should also be pointed out that while the PAC provides an effective forum in which light can be shone in certain areas, the primary investigative work in advance of this week’s meeting on the CRC was done by the HSE.

Another issue is the discipline of the TDs and senators who sit on them.

Unlike in other parliaments, where not all members of parliament are entitled to sit on committees, almost all TDs and Senators in Leinster House, bar a few Independents, are on one committee or another.

It is not seen as the privilege it perhaps should be, and there is sometimes a sense that not enough work goes into committees as might be the case if TDs had to earn their places on them.

Often at committee meetings, members get up and leave – only to return and ask questions which have already been asked in their absence.

Questions can also be politically loaded, designed to score points rather than elicit information. Members’ advance preparation for hearings can seem poor at times. If the committees are to assume a greater role in our parliamentary system, some members will need to treat their membership of them more seriously.