Assembly Members will sit for five days in May

Conservative AM for Monmouth David Davies spoke out after he described the assembly building as resembling "a morgue" earlier this week.

The leader of the Conservatives in the assembly, Nick Bourne, has also voiced his concerns about the amount of time members spend in the building.

And he said plans to cut the number of assembly committee meetings were a "total disgrace" and could make things worse.

David Davies said he was concerned that Assembly Members could become lazy.

"The essential point here is that it's very easy for Assembly Members to sit back and take it easy, and I don't think it's good enough," he said.

"I think there are too many Assembly Members who are treating the recesses as an opportunity to put their feet up, and at �42,000 a year, I don't think that that is acceptable."

Number of days AM's will sit over the next 8 months May - 5 June - 12 July - 9 August - 0 September - 0 October - 9 November - 12 December - 6

He said he went to work on Tuesday and no one was there.

"Taking Monday off was okay, but when I turned up on Tuesday the only people there were a couple of security guards," he added.

"We had a bank holiday on Monday, which is fair enough, but Tuesday was an extra day, something to do with the Queens birthday.

"I've no doubt many of my colleagues were out working hard, but it did strike me as slightly ironic that so many people had been keen to take the Queens privilege day when we've got so many republicans there who stayed away when the Queen last came to visit the Assembly."

Mr Davies, who has published his expenses in the past, said he would happily publish his diary for the public to inspect, urging other Assembly Members to do the same.

Nick Bourne said he would also be willing to publish his diary, from the first day he arrived at the assembly if need be.

"You've got to understand that a lot of members do work hard in their constituencies when they are not at the assembly, although I do understand that the issue does need proper scrutiny." he said.

"I am quite willing for people to see where I've been."

David Davies said he would publish his diary

He also said plans to cut the number of times assembly committees meet could mean that members are at the assembly for even less time.

The committees role is to scrutinise the actions of the Welsh Assembly government, but Labour has suggested that they meet once instead of twice a month.

"This is a total disgrace and there's no satisfactory reason for this," he said.

"It's a way of reviewing and scrutinising Labour's work, and it's essential that they meet more often."

"Everyone says that the work done there is invaluable, so why don't they meet more often?"

Mr Bourne said he was not at the assembly on Tuesday, but was carrying out important work in his constituency.