Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not labour the point but I wish to emphasise two points in relation to amendment Nos. 46 and 50. The intention of amendment No. 46 is not to be a fine statement, it is to enshrine a right-based approach in legislation. The Constitutional Convention, as it was probably called then back in 2011, deliberated to a great extent on the issue of enshrining social, economic and cultural rights in our Constitution. Those same principles apply to enshrining social, economic and, in this case, cultural rights and equal access to culture and heritage in legislation. We are lucky that we have a written Constitution but that does not preclude us from doing that. I know the Minister of State is not going to accept the amendment but I assure him that it is not simply about nice words. Once you place a right-based approach to anything in legislation, it changes people's potential access or recourse to the denial of access - in this case, to culture and heritage - if that is the outworkings of the legislation.

On a serious point, in fairness to the Minister of State, I do not doubt his sincerity about the committee because he has come to this committee far more than his line Minister. There are periods when I forget what he looks like because he is so unwilling to come before us. That is an argument we will have with him. The issue is not about the Minister of State. Sometimes I think if he had more control over some of these matters, some of these things would have better outcomes. It is about ensuring that no matter who sits in the Minister of State's chair or, more importantly, who the senior Minister is, that this committee has a role. The intention and wording of the amendment is not in any way to get involved in administrative matters. That is not our function. However, it is without a doubt important, where there is significant legislation like this, not only for our committee to play a role in scrutinising, deliberating and deciding on the legislation, but as that legislation is given effect and operates in the real world, for us to have some level of scrutiny in terms of whether the intentions of the legislation, as the Minister of State outlined, is what transpires in the real world and if not, if any of the matters those of us in this committee raised concerns about needs to be returned to. While there are many statutory organisations under the remit of this Department which make themselves more than available to our committee, it has not always been that way. It might not always be that way and therefore I urge the Minister of State, not to reconsider his position on the amendment, but, given the importance of this legislation and the work he and his officials have put into it, to think hard about what positive role an Oireachtas committee can play in ensuring the legislation, as passed, is actually what transpires in the real world. It is about the scrutiny element. Separate to our legislative agenda, we organise many important sessions, often in a very cross-party and collegiate manner. Some of that should be formalised. I urge the Minister of State to consider that as a general point. I doubt it will go anywhere irrespective of whether the Minister of State agrees with me or not, but I wanted to make the point nonetheless.