Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

It would be remiss of us during this debate not to state that many of the agencies we are talking about are doing a superb job. In particular, I would cite the Road Safety Authority. It is outstanding, as are some of the outcomes it is achieving with great difficulty. I commend the Minister of State with responsibility for the agency, Deputy Noel Ahern, who is here with us today.

One of the big problems with all of those agencies is that they are not answerable directly to this House. This is an issue which goes to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and to the Ceann Comhairle, and the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. Unlike the House of Commons, we cannot raise issues, for example, such as the port tunnel in the case of the NRA and some of the safety issues in the case of the RSA. The Ceann Comhairle turned down eight or ten questions in this current batch from me and Labour Party colleagues such as the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on the basis that the Minister cannot talk about the agencies. In the House of Commons, the former Secretary of State for Transport, Rt Hon. Ruth Kelly, spoke about any issue to do with transport. The present Secretary of State, Rt Hon. Geoff Hoone, who I watched a few days ago, speaks on any issue to do with transport on policy grounds irrespective of whether it relates to an agency.

The 30th Dáil was supposed to be a reforming Dáil. Deputy O'Dowd feels the same as I do. We were supposed to have a reformed Dáil whereby answers on all transport issues in broad policy could be obtained through the Minister. Has this Minister any objection in principle to answering the policy questions on the NRA or any of his Department's other agencies? If those agencies are not answerable to this House, then we have a major problem. That, I think, is the thrust of the Fine Gael question.

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