David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on this motion. Last week should have been a wake-up call for politics in Ireland. There was a great deal of talk during that week about accountability, democracy and so on. That has to start here in this House.

As I look around, there are four Members in the Chamber. The Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, was not in the House when this debate commenced. His colleague, Deputy Roche, came into the House and told us we were facing "unprecedented economic turmoil", then left the Chamber. Deputy Cuffe arrived into the Chamber, castigated all of us, particularly the Labour Party, for tabling this terrible motion, and then scurried out. Debate means coming into this House and listening to what people have to say, then refuting, agreeing or disagreeing with it. To do otherwise is not to debate an issue. We might as well swap e-mails. This is happening over and over again in regard to most of the work done in this House. Very few Members come to the Chamber to listen to what is said. There is no debate on issues. We could shut the House down and simply correspond by e-mail. Not one of our media friends is present in the public gallery for this debate. I will probably be lambasted in the press next week for attacking a sacred cow.

The Government has stated the Dáil will sit an extra week, but that will not be the case because we have already lost a week as a result of the referendum on the Lisbon treaty, and rightly so. It is proposed that during this extra week the House will debate the national development plan, but there will be no debate. People will simply come in, say what they have to say and scurry out again. There will be no Question Time and no Order of Business, and that is not good enough.

Muiris MacCarthaigh in his book Accountability in Irish Parliamentary Politics stated that Dáil Éireann cannot oversee Government when it is not in session. That the Cabinet continues to meet during periods of recess is identified as a particular problem. In Westminster the Cabinet does not meet when the Houses are in recess. How can we as a Parliament oversee Government work when we are not sitting? The Government carries on. Government is to a greater extent treating this House and Parliament as a rubber stamp, a nuisance and something that has to be got over.

Decision-making patterns that have developed in recent years have effectively by-passed Parliament. Agreements between the Government and social partners are presented as a fait accompli. Ratification of the Lisbon treaty would have allowed us to scrutinise EU decisions before they were taken. That cannot happen now. The rulings of the courts change the law.

Deputy Charlie O'Connor told us earlier what the Government will do in respect of disabilities. What he and Deputies from all sides should be doing is holding the Executive to account in this regard. What is happening now is that the Executive is controlling the Dáil. It decides when the Dáil sits, what it discusses and when it discusses it. The Dáil is simply a convenience for the Executive and that should not be the case. The Whip system in other parliaments is not as rigid and as such Members can voice their opinions freely.

The people are sick and tired of what is going on here. As stated earlier, we will go on holidays in a few weeks' time for three months. That is appalling. Many Deputies have stated that Members work hard. What will Deputies do for the three months the House is not sitting? There will be no parliamentary questions to be prepared and no debates to attend, and we are no longer members of local authorities. What will Deputies do? The Dáil should meet up to the end of July and should return in early September as suggested by the Labour Party.

There is no point in being here unless we reform how this House operates. Deputy Varadkar spoke about committee meetings and how one often has to leave a meeting to attend a vote in this House. That must change. We must give more power to the committees. We could hold plenary sessions in the morning and then adjourn to attend committees. Members should attend committees, as should the media who should report on them. If we do not do that we could see other forces in this country beginning to surface. The Minister of State, Deputy Roche, told us we are heading into unprecedented economic turmoil. Extreme forces, left and right, could surface and find fertile ground if we fail them. There is a huge responsibility on us to bring about reform. Unfortunately, given that the Government controls what happens in this House, only it can engage in real reform.

The Ceann Comhairle earlier this year initiated a series of discussions on Dáil reform which are worthwhile and welcome. Most of those discussions relate to Dáil Standing Orders. Another issue that needs to be examined is the number of quasi unelected authorised non-governmental organisation quangos established by the Government. They are unaccountable to anyone, particularly this House. Members seeking information about such agencies by way of parliamentary question are told the Minister no longer has responsibility for them. How then is a Member to hold such a body to account? It cannot be done. These quangos are financed by taxpayers' money yet we cannot question them except every once in a while when they attend a committee for a cosy chat. Ministers should be answerable in this House for the work of these quangos established by the Government. The Government has hived off power to these quangos and has filled their boards with their friends. The former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, said he appointed particular people to boards because they were his pals. He did so not because they had any particular skill, qualification or experience but because they were his pals. That is not good enough.

The proceedings of the Dáil will, we are told, be televised in 2012, not that far away. God help those who are Members then if things have not changed because the public will not put up with what is happening in this House. As Deputy Varadkar stated, politicians and politics are of low standing in this country. That should not be the case. The Government needs to engage constructively and positively with Members on all sides of the House in regard to what we do and how we do it.

Deputy Michael Ahern spoke about a 2% growth in the economy. I am not sure that will be the case. Deputy Burton, when speaking, reminded me of the perfect storm. What is facing this Government and the country now is rising unemployment, rising interest rates, rising fuel costs and massive discontent and pressure on our people in terms of rising food prices and so on. We need to get our act together. As representatives of the people, we need to debate and discuss these issues in this House. We cannot do so effectively at present given the constraints on us in terms of the procedures in this House. Those procedures must change soon.

One way of addressing this issue is to establish an independent group to examine within a particular timescale what is going on in this House. While we can address issues such as how questions are taken and so on, we may need to ask what is the role of the Dáil in the 21st century, what should we be doing and how should we be doing it? I contend we should include ourselves, academics, the media, public officials and the public in such a debate. That was done in Canada a number of years ago and it was a great success.

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