Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

The role of committees is closely linked to the operation of the Dáil and the need for Dáil reform, so I will address my initial remarks to that aspect. There is no question but that over the past ten years or so we have seen a clear diminution of democracy and of parliamentary democracy and accountability in particular. In many ways, the media has become the real parliament. One can go out to the plinth or into a television studio and say almost anything about any issue, yet very often we are not allowed to discuss the various issues of the day in this Chamber.

As was mentioned by other speakers, there has been a proliferation of quangos, State boards and State authorities — approximately 450 to date — almost none of which are accountable to the Dáil and some of which do not even appear to be accountable to their own Ministers. With the development of consultative committees, enterprise boards, RAPID boards and Leader boards, we have a situation where almost any community activist, local worker or anybody who has any involvement in civil society has, in one way or another, been somehow co-opted into the Government system and been made part of a State committee. In many ways, I can see why the Government does that because it is a great way to control dissent. As one Minister said to me in regard to my local drugs task force, it is better to have these people pissing in rather than pissing out. I am not quite sure what he meant by that, but I have a fair idea.

In many ways, that sort of system resembles what one would see in a communist country or in a country such as Libya where one has a system of government by committee. Everyone is a member of a committee which reports to a higher one which then reports to a higher one again. Then the great dictator makes his decision. That, in itself, is a diminution of democracy. We have seen the removal of powers from local government and the transfer of powers from councillors to managers.

There is definitely a need for a democratic revolution. That means restoring power to local government, introducing democracy into the education system by giving the vocational education system control over all education, a bonfire of the quangos — I am sure we can abolish least half of the over 400 quangos — and a proper restoration of parliamentary democracy in this House. Fine Gael has made a series of proposals in this regard.

I would like a committee week perhaps every month or six weeks similar to that in the European Parliament. That would give us a proper opportunity to concentrate on committee work and to review legislation properly through committees rather than having to run back and forth to Question Time or other debates in the Dáil. I do not see why that cannot be done.

I have great concerns about the expansion of the committee system to 22 committees, which is extraordinary. There will be 22 chairs, 22 vice-chairs and 22 convenors, or possibly even more than that with sub-committee chairs. I might not have the support of many of my colleagues on this but it is inappropriate that committee chairs, vice-chairs and convenors should be paid for that work. Surely part of the job of a Deputy is chairing a committee. I do not know anyone in any other walk of life or business who gets paid extra just to chair a committee. If we took away that entitlement and saved the taxpayer €1 million, we would see a sudden lack of interest in having so many committees and chairs thereof.

If we are to have committees, rather than have more of them, we should have committees which have more power. All the chairs should go to the Opposition parties but if that is not the case, they should, at the very least, be given out on a proportionate basis. Committees should be given the power to review appointments. Where Ministers make appointments to State boards and State authorities, all those people should be called in front of the committee to be questioned to see if they are qualified and up to the job. Quangos should be responsible to the relevant committees and ministerial power over the committees should be removed. Committees should set their own times and agendas and Ministers should not have the power to order them to meet in private. Committees should also be given the power of inquiry.

I question the need for some of the newly proposed committees. An Irish language committee is a nice idea but much more could be done much more effectively than creating another committee to discuss the Irish language. If we want to improve the Irish language, we need to focus on education rather than just create another committee with another Chairman and Vice-Chairman.

We should have a committee on the partnership process, which is not discussed at all in this House, and we should consider adopting the Finnish model and having a committee on the future, which would look beyond legislation at some of the challenges that lie ahead.

Having read the Minister of State's statement, I concede it proposes some reforms but it certainly does not outline what needs to be done or address the key reforms required to make this Parliament relevant and work like other parliaments of its kind around the world.

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