Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have more of a general comment rather than an issue for the CRU. I refer to the point on transparency and accountability and the feeling there is a lack of in-depth technical understanding among committee members of the work the CRU does. It is not surprising that we do not have a packed house today because a lot of this is technical. It does not engage people in the way that it might. Similar situations arise with the finance committee, which is why the House is in the long process of developing a budget office that would assist Parliament in acting out its functions rather than just being subject to information provided by the Department of Finance and that Parliament would act with a little more strength. There is an argument for the same to apply in our engagement with regulators. There is a burden on us which maybe the committee does not take all that seriously, but the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, now regularly defers to the committee, saying it is nothing to do with him and that the CRU is directly answerable to the committee, so the committee should address the issue there. It is grand for the Minister to say that, but he has a function and he has a lot of technical backup, advisers and depth and strength behind him. If the committee is supposed to be holding the CRU to account in some way, or the CRU is answerable, in a general way, to the committee, and we are depending on our own capacity to research or to understand, as members of the committee, we do not have capacity in that regard. It is not for the CRU per seto resolve that matter. It is for the committee members. I will certainly be proposing that a recommendation be made to the Chair of the committee Chairs to see how the committee might be better resourced in meeting its obligations.

While the OECD is not critical of the parliamentarians, it highlights the lacuna that exists. The CRU can resolve all its problems, but if the committee does not engage with it, or we do not feel qualified or empowered, then there is a problem. Although not while there is such a quality regulator, in the way the CRU does its business, the committee has a responsibility to ensure that we are covered on our side. In the same way if the CRU did not have the technical capability, it would get it, and rightly so. However, we do not and that is a result of how weak Parliament generally is, versus parliaments in other jurisdictions around the world, where they are heavily resourced and have more powers. Parliament here is very weak. We thought new politics would begin a process, but it has not happened. There is a backlog of Bills. We have the capacity to bring forward Bills, but if the Government does not give the money message, it does not go anywhere. In my view, the committee is being prevented from carrying out its side of the responsibility in terms of the work that the CRU does. We will make a proposal on that through the Chair, that the committee needs to address that.