Oireachtas committees have been "effectively grounded" and prevented from travelling abroad because of a lack of State funds, Oireachtas committee chairmen have complained.
In a letter to Ceann Comhairle Dr Rory O'Hanlon late last month, Fianna Fáil TD Noel O'Flynn warned that the workload of committees was being affected.
Mr O'Flynn, who chairs a working group of Dáil and Seanad committee chairmen, sought an assurance from the Ceann Comhairle that an extra €100,000 would be forthcoming.
"A number of committees have already exhausted their allocation and are effectively grounded," he said in the letter, seen by The Irish Times.
"They have been unable to attend conferences and are refusing work programme-related invitations and opportunities abroad as a result.
"Unfortunately, this means that they are unable to make real progress with, or produce tangible results from, the arduous workloads they have set themselves."
The TD was embroiled in controversy in May after he challenged an RTÉ journalist who questioned him about his committee's 12-day visit to Argentina and Chile. Facing questions from a Morning Ireland reporter, Mr O'Flynn said his Communications, Marine and Natural Resources committee would invite the RTÉ Authority "to review your work and to review your annual report".
Mr O'Flynn, an official and two committee members, TD Paul Kehoe, Sen Brendan Kenneally, attended the World Energy Conference in Sydney last September at a cost of €32,636.
A trip to Washington in September by five members of the Finance and Public Service committee - Labour's Joan Burton, Fine Gael's Paul McGrath and Fianna Fáil's Ned O'Keeffe, MJ Nolan and Michael Finneran - cost just under €20,000.
A visit to Sydney last October by Fianna Fáil's Noel Davern and the Progressive Democrats' Noel Grealish, on behalf of the Dáil Committee on Members' Interest, cost just over €16,000.
The Oireachtas chairmen's committee this year allocated €28,000 to each Dáil and Oireachtas committee; €60,000 to Foreign Affairs and the European Affairs committees and €71,000 to be shared between all.
In his letter, Mr O'Flynn said the working groups had "adopted a strict budgetary regime with the funds allocated to date in order to maximise value for money. Examples of this include a sizeable number of committees travelling economy class on long-haul flights, reduction in size of delegations, staying in lower-quality hotels, etc."
However, he said, such measures alone would not satisfy travel requirements for the rest of the year. He asked for a further €100,000 to be provided.
