David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. There is a sense of déjÀ vu here. The former Minister, Seamus Brennan did some work in this area, as did Deputies Hanafin, Carey and Dempsey when they acted as Chief Whip. However, we have seen no significant Dáil reform. I am here over 13 years but there has been no significant Dáil reform.

In the past, attempts were made to put together a package of reforms. Would it be a better approach to do this incrementally? A number of small procedural changes could be made that would make a huge difference to the running of the House. I will give an example. For the last year, I have had a motion on the Order Paper and I have it on today's Order Paper as Motion No. 77. It states:

"That, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, Standing Order 21 of the Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann relative to Public Business paragraph (4) sixth line, after "reply" is hereby amended by the insertion of the following:

"and the Member concerned may then ask one brief supplementary question and the Member of the Government or Minister of State shall be called upon to reply in conclusion"."

Does the Minister of State not agree that the Adjournment is a farce at the moment?

A Minister of State, who has no connection with the Department involved in the question, comes into the House and reads out a pre-written script in response. Most of the time that Minister of State has neither the knowledge nor authority to respond to the questions raised by any Member on any side on the Adjournment. Surely that is an affront to the House, to Members and to the people who send us here. Would the Minister of State now allow this simple motion to be moved today or this week? It would take approximately three minutes of Government time to agree to this motion to allow supplementary questions on the Adjournment Debate. It is a very simple thing that could be done today. Many other procedures could be amended incrementally.

Is the Government really serious about procedural reforms in the House? I have not seen any major Government proposals in the recent past. For example, when did the task force he mentioned last meet? Are minutes of that meeting available to read in order to understand the Government's thinking in this area?

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