A game of more than numbers
Higher salary is one reason the coalition cares about committee chairman positions. A committee chairman earns around €4,400 a month, while a deputy chairman makes €3,900. The salary of an MP is approximately €3,400.
Head of IRL Helir-Valdor Seeder said that a decision has not been made regarding the foreign affairs committee. “Once it is clear how many members the coalition has, we can look at which people we need to move in which committees. Our group will probably make these decisions next week, while it requires us to negotiate with our partners. We need to make sure people are a good fit for committees in more than form,” Seeder explained.
A minority in some committees is inevitable for the coalition. The choice is whether to be considerably outnumbered in a single committee or slightly outnumbered in several. Having the same number of votes than the opposition in a committee gains the coalition nothing as draft legislation cannot reach the floor in case of a tie.