Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Will the Taoiseach act, as the statute says, on the recommendation of the Clerk? As I asked originally, is a recommendation binding or discretionary? It is a question which has been posed by others since.

Why involve the Taoiseach? If we are serious about the separation of powers, why is the Oireachtas not master of its own destiny in the management of its senior staff? There is a difficulty in the approach set out as one of the functions of the Houses is to hold the Government to account. As the procedures operated in the Houses are sometimes advised by the very people who will be subject to the provisions, it is not desirable to provide that the senior officers of the Houses can be dismissed by the head of the Government we are charged to hold to account. For Parliament to work transparently and best practice to be imbued in its workings, it is important that it is seen that the Government cannot sack anybody in regard to the operation of the House, only Parliament itself, acting through its commission or another mechanism that is within the overview and control of Parliament. I hope that is the direction in which we are moving. I do not understand why there is a need to have the Taoiseach involved in this.

The Minister of State's reasoning is that under a different statute the Taoiseach appoints these officers. I would prefer an amendment to the effect that the commission would appoint senior members of staff on a consensus basis through the Members of the House and through our own procedures. That is the direction in which we should be heading, rather than still giving a role to the Executive qua Executive or worse still to the Taoiseach qua Taoiseach to hire and fire these most senior officials of the Houses of the Oireachtas, if Parliament is to be sovereign and independent of the Executive as the Minister of State said the Constitution requires. We must nail down these issues.

See this speech in context