Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I agree with the Tánaiste when she says the Government has been damaged by vacillation, hesitation and inertia in tackling serious problems. Does she agree that part of the problem relates to its legislative programme? Of the 19 Bills we have been promised for this session, to be published in the next two to three weeks, only five have yet surfaced. Will she indicate what is happening to some of these critical Bills such as the prisons Bill, the disability Bill, the criminal justice Bill and the State airports Bill, in which she has a particular interest? There seems to be a huge delay in producing these.

I also raise the role of the Oireachtas in scrutinising the decentralisation programme. The Government may think it is being decisive in pushing ahead with decentralisation, but surely the Tánaiste would agree that it should be open to proper scrutiny by the Oireachtas. How does she square the blocking by the Fianna Fáil majority on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service of any investigation or assessment of decentralisation with the democratic accountability to which her party has always been pledged?

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