Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

The Minister of State may agree with me that we cannot continue with the current situation with regard to agencies. The other day in the Dáil, the Taoiseach said that he would talk to two Ministers to see what they could do with the HSE. The HSE had more authority than the two Ministers and the Taoiseach put together. The only reason for that is that we in this House gave it that authority. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform also said he could not justify talking to the chairman of an authority about the way in which the Garda Síochána could be used. This is another quango we set up which has removed both the power of the House to question the Minister and the power of the Minister to act.

We are dealing with a limited proposal. It is not a big package of Dáil reform such as was tried before, it is a limited, specific package that was put on the table by the Ceann Comhairle and I thank him for his good offices in this regard. Unless the Government can give us an answer on the major issue of restoring power to the House from the quangos we have created — as I said, there are more than 1,000 of them — we will not have achieved anything. I strongly urge the Minister to carry the case beyond its current position to those in government who can make decisions about changing the law as well as Standing Orders.

See this speech in context