Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I support Deputy Durkan's amendment. The Minister and the Taoiseach indicated there would be a new Oireachtas committee. I presume it will come into being in the next Parliament, the 30th Dáil. Given the SEM is an all-Ireland body and operates under the implementation bodies established under the Belfast Agreement, can the Minister guarantee that the new Oireachtas committee dealing with the affairs of the implementation body will be established, so that our successors in the next Dáil, along with the Westminster Parliament and, I presume, our colleagues in the Northern Ireland Assembly, when it is reconstituted after the elections, will have the opportunity of raising issues that may arise, under the operation of the SEM? Deputy Durkan has tabled many amendments in this regard but his fundamental point, for which I commend him, is that the people should be supreme. We are their representatives in a parliamentary democracy and there should be a mechanism for Dáil approval so the final say will not rest with bureaucrats.

The Minister of State and the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, explained the role of ministerial directives and civil servants gave us very useful briefings, before the Bill came forward, on the difference in culture between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, arising from the fact the UK has gone down a more competitive market route than we. Can the Minister of State assure the House that it was not the type of throwaway phrase the Taoiseach has always given but that it will lead to real Oireachtas accountability?

See this speech in context