Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have seen a number of examples of this from the Government. It is a display of contempt for the committee process and our very parliamentary democracy. This is a minority Government of Independents and Fine Gael. We heard all the rhetoric at the start that it is a coalition between the Dáil and Government.

There has to be a symbiotic process that works both ways for that. We meet very regularly as a committee to facilitate legislation as we do. For legislation that everyone across the House supports and wants to progress, when we have given seven months' notice for it and the Department of Justice and Equality does not engage with the work programme as it should, then we have to exercise our role within the context of our parliamentary democracy. That means rebalancing the concentration of executive power that is there currently with our own legislative capacity. It means that when there are pieces of legislation that are extremely important, we should balance those against other legislation that is equally important. There is no reason why the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill should trump a very important piece of legislation from Deputy Clare Daly. That could be the expressed view of this committee. If we prioritise one piece of legislation, it should get the due diligence of the Department.

It also shows that the Department of Justice and Equality cannot handle the spread of its existing brief. We see this across a number of pieces of legislation, where we see delay or ignorance about particular pieces of information. Where it came to policing, it could not respond to different matters on which we questioned it. This raises serious questions about how the Department as it is currently structured can handle the legislative process. If it cannot, then it needs to say so and allow for it to be restructured. As legislators, we cannot be left here waiting for months to try to progress a Bill and then hear that the Department has not had time to do it. We have given it plenty of time and we have to exercise our role which means prioritising, as Deputy Jim O'Callaghan has said, one piece of legislation, so that we have the kind of rebalancing the Government wanted at the start of its formation. It cannot have it both ways. It can have it in a majoritarian sense, but it is not in a majority and needs to respect the numbers it has and work with everyone to progress all legislation that it wants. It cannot have it both ways and that needs to be communicated to the Government.