Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I have no faith whatever in the Fianna Fáil Members in Government proposing to or attempting to reform the Dáil. I have been sitting opposite its members at Oireachtas committees for ten years and they have stonewalled and blocked every single proposal for Dáil reform, even minor ones. Is the Minister of State aware that the Ceann Comhairle used his good offices to bring forward a package for modest but significant Dáil reform and that it was simply blocked and scuttled by the Fianna Fáil Party? It was not blocked by the Green Party or the Government as a whole but by the members of the Fianna Fáil Party in Government. The package covered addressed how the taking of Leaders' Questions might be made more effective and how the Order of Business should be tidied up and made efficient.

It was also proposed that parliamentary questions be allowed on the 200-odd quangos that the Government has set up and on which Members cannot ask questions in the Chamber. Proposals also covered the management of committees of the Oireachtas and the holding of Adjournment debates on topical issues. The package of proposals was simply scuttled. There was agreement among the group that met the Ceann Comhairle but, at the next step, the proposals were blocked.

In the proposals the Minister of State made to us at the committee there was not a word about the inability of Members of this House to ask questions and obtain answers on where public money is spent. I refer to the HSE, the National Roads Authority and the other 198 quangos that have been set up. By setting them up, the Government has removed power from this Chamber, thereby from the people of the country, and has handed it over to so-called independent authorities. I wonder whom they are independent of. We cannot ask questions in this House about the colossal amounts of public money handed over to these agencies.

The Ceann Comhairle had a proposal to address this, as did the Labour Party and Fine Gael, but I now hear the Minister is paying lip service to it. If the Government had any intention of implementing the proposal, it would have done so long ago? Does the Minister of State not agree? Instead of implementing the proposals, every new Bill in the House establishes another agency and removes power from the House. Members cannot even ask questions about such agencies. Major reform is required in this area and it will involve the amendment of several Acts. Does the Government want to achieve this?

The Labour Party and Fine Gael have proposed that, during the summer recess, Members would be entitled to table written parliamentary questions. The Minister of State did not mention this in his proposals to us. I could not find a reference to it. Deputy Seán Barrett sat with me on a committee making the first major attempt at Dáil reform some years ago but the process died a death when it came to the point of making a decision.

The Minister of State must be aware that there are now joint proposals from Fine Gael and the Labour Party on Dáil reform. Proposals have also been made by the Ceann Comhairle. There are minimal proposals by the Government that involve tinkering at the edges without making any serious attempt to effect change. The only changes that are being proposed are to benefit the Government and effectively silence the Opposition.

Fianna Fáil might find itself in opposition shortly. Will the Minister of State consider my points from an Opposition point of view, in which case we might make some progress before he leaves office?

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