To my mind, it's clear. Each person has three and a half minutes to put his question. The witness has a reasonable amount of time to respond. Once the questioner has had three and a half minutes to put his questions...Obviously, it means that someone needs to have a stopwatch or timepiece similar to the one used for sporting events where interruptions don't count. For example, in hockey - and I'm sure that there are a number of hockey enthusiasts here -- when the referee blows the whistle, the clock stops and when play resumes, the clock starts up again. Here in committee, when a committee member has finished asking a question, the clock should stop and when he moves to another question, then the time should start counting down again, just like in a hockey game when the play resumes. That's how it would work for a period of three and half minutes.
On May 3rd, 2006. See this statement in context.