James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I find it unfortunate that I must oppose it but I cannot allow a situation to pertain whereby the Minister will set up a body that is unanswerable to this House other than through the occasional committee meeting. When we seek to ask parliamentary questions or to get answers for our constituents to legitimate questions such as on the bus service from Portmarnock, the inability to get parking at Portmarnock train station because the road beside the station is so narrow or the lack of a bus service to bring people in a timely fashion to the stations at Skerries and Rush, those legitimate questions are unanswered. The Minister will have no responsibility and he will say it is a matter for the Dublin transport authority, which will not answer parliamentary questions. Yet, the Minister wants the House to approve this Bill.

We have already had a discussion on the Lisbon treaty. We want to make the Dáil more relevant and make Europe more democratic, but the Minister comes to the House with this Bill and tells us it is perfectly all right for us to pass it, knowing full well what will happen due to the experience with the HSE.

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