Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I remind the House that this debate was arranged on foot of a demand made by my colleague, Deputy Michael D. Higgins. I thank the Government for acceding to that demand.

Deputy Calleary made a thoughtful contribution but when he has served for a period in the House, he will realise the importance of media coverage. I will discuss that matter further in a moment.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins dealt with the issue of accountability and the need therefor. He referred to the power of the people, through this Parliament, in our democratic republic and the right and duty of these Houses to ensure that the Executive is scrutinised and kept accountable. The Deputy also referred to the absolute necessity to ensure that committees are not seen or used as the instruments of the Executive. He argued eloquently against the democratic deficit created by the transfer of power from the people, as represented in this Parliament, to a clatter of quangos — 450 of which, as another speaker stated, were established in the past five years — composed of faceless, unknown and unaccountable people. The Deputy further argued that neither Ministers nor this Parliament have the right to deprive citizens of their powers and rights as enshrined in the people's Constitution. I strongly support the arguments made by Deputy Michael D. Higgins in this regard.

It must be unique in the history of humanity that a group of individuals — namely, this Parliament and its Executive — entrusted with power by the people has, on a voluntary basis, divested itself of this power and thereby disempowered the people. I am not a great historian but I am aware that wars were fought to protect such power. However, our Parliament and its Executive seems to have surrendered it without firing a shot. However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel in that regard. I refer to the recent statement by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to the effect that rule by quango is not the way in which any country should be ruled. I hope this is a signal that the Government is giving serious consideration to reclaiming for the people the rights that were given away when the quangos were established.

I wish to comment now on the nuts and bolts issues relating to the committees, namely, how they are formed, how they are constituted and how they operate. The Government Chief Whip sent me and others the Government's proposals for the establishment of the committees, joint and select. These require the setting up of a total of 21 committees, comprising the 18 existing committees and three new ones. The Government's proposals require that every Fianna Fáil backbencher, including Deputy Calleary, will serve as a committee chairman, vice chairman or convenor. These are all paid positions.

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