Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My colleague raised a number of issues but I wish to focus on a separate matter. It is an issue the Minister raised in his opening statement when he said he wanted open, accountable and ethical Government underpinned by a transparent and effective public system. Everybody in the committee subscribes to that aspiration. The Minister has direct responsibility for holding up 27 legislative measures that have been passed by the Dáil or both Houses of the Oireachtas. Some of them were passed by the Dáil with the Government's support. However, it is clear at this stage that there is now a Government policy not to provide money messages to legislative measures, including measures before this committee. One measure, for example, is legislation I sponsored. It was drafted by the Law Reform Commission, which knocks on the head the Taoiseach's argument that these are drafted overnight. It is legislation the Government supports and which the Minister's predecessor in the junior capacity of that Department asked me not to bring before the committee until the summer of last year because of the Department's workload. I agreed to do that on the basis that it would proceed. The legislation is still not allowed to proceed because no money message has been provided.

I will outline what this legislation provides for, and this is just one example from 27 legislative measures awaiting money messages. The Consumer Insurance Contracts Bill provides for an update of our insurance laws. Those laws were drafted on the basis of court rulings in Britain arising from the 1630s and 1640s in terms of merchant shipping. The Bill ensures that when one's house is struck by lightning and burns to the ground the insurance company cannot refuse to pay out as a result of it declaring that one's burglar alarm, which had nothing to do with the lightning strike on the house, was faulty or was not the type that was identified in the insurance contract. The legislation is very sensible. It is about balancing the scales of justice for the consumer as opposed to the large insurance company. It also puts an onus on the insurance company to ask for information instead of being able to nullify insurance contracts because the consumer did not know what information should have been given freely and voluntarily without being requested.

There are many other measures. The Dáil has just passed what is known by the public as the jail the bankers Bill. It will allow bankers to face up to five years in jail if they lie to the Central Bank. That legislation was drafted by the legal division of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. It was written by legal professionals on my instruction and guidance, yet it will not get a money message. Why is the Minister's Department holding up allowing these Bills to be scrutinised on Committee Stage, which the democratic wish of the Dáil?

I wish to make another point. There would be a logical argument if some of these legislative measures caused a charge on the public purse, but the measures I mentioned do not cause a charge. They change the law but the Department does not have to create a new budget line to implement them. They are not about changing tax bands or introducing new motorways or the like. They are about changing the laws to ensure better rights for consumers. It is not a draw on the public purse. It might be a draw on the purse of the insurance companies as perhaps they might not make as much profit. Will the Minister explain why we are in this position two years later? There is also a question which the committee has discussed in private session. Why should this committee continue to facilitate Government legislation when the Minister is refusing to accept any legislation from the Opposition despite those measures being agreed by the Dáil, sometimes unanimously?