Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 7, line 18, after "section 5" to insert ", subject to the approval of Dáil Éireann".

These 15 amendments are all related to the same issue, which is to require Dáil approval for changes that may take place from time to time. We discussed this matter last night and on Committee Stage of this Bill a couple of weeks ago. There is a growing fear that legislation passed in this House hands over responsibility to bodies, groups or agencies for which the Minister is not accountable to the House and in respect of which major changes can take place without the knowledge of the Oireachtas, but simply with the agreement of the Minister.

I do not distrust the Minister, but it is fundamentally important that when responsibility for day-to-day administration has been handed over to other agencies, the changes that follow should be approved by the Houses of the Oireachtas. A Minister normally makes an order that is laid before the Houses in the Oireachtas Library. That is of no consequence at all. Sometimes it comes before the House as a motion without debate. This is a sovereign Parliament and it is our duty to be responsible and accountable, while it is the Minister's duty to be accountable to the House. We cannot do that unless we insert an amendment or series of amendments.

The Minister made reference in the recent past to recognising the fact that the Oireachtas has a role to play and that it needs to be informed on an ongoing basis. This protects the Minister because if an issue arises that involves a change, the House will know about it and can debate it if it so desires. I remember the debate on the telecommunications Bill in 1983. An undertaking was given to An Post workers that regardless of what happened in the future, all the conditions on salary and pensions pertaining to civil servants would transfer with them to An Post. However, by statutory instrument, ministerial order or regulation, full responsibility for that particular section was handed over to An Post and the Minister was no longer accountable to the House.

It must be recognised that we cannot go on like that because it is bad for Parliament, for democracy and for accountability. It makes us look like fools when we cannot ask a question of the Minister that is directly related to his portfolio without incurring the wrath of the Chair who will tell us that the Minister is not accountable to the House. We cannot even put down a written question because it will be deemed out of order.

The time has come when we need to take a stand and ask whether we are serious about parliamentary democracy and accountability. In the event of a change in authority devolved by the Minister to anybody else, we need to have a means of ensuring the Oireachtas has some knowledge and an opportunity, if it so desires, to agree or to disagree.

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