Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

The other point on which I wished to query the Minister of State is the idea of a package, or doing it on a piecemeal basis. It is very hard to predict on a piecemeal basis what the effect of one piece of reform will have on other unrelated matters until they are all put together. It is extremely difficult. We have been working on Dáil reform and getting very close to the decisions on a number of occasions. The Minister of State's predecessor did a lot of work on this and we brought it to the Dáil reform committee. Subsequently at the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, CPP, the Fianna Fáil members came out in force and all voted it down despite the fact that it came from the Ceann Comhairle and that the Whips, in their meeting on Dáil reform committee, had agreed this package of fairly minor changes. They voted them down. A similar thing happened at the CPP where Deputy Ruairí Quinn brought to the attention of that committee that Ministers were answering only half of their questions. It was agreed by everybody at the CPP this was a bad practice and the staff were asked to go away and draw up the necessary changes in Standing Orders.

I know what the Ceann Comhairle is going to say. I am not used to Question Time.

Is the Minister aware that following all that procedure, the Fianna Fáil members of the CPP, even those I did not know were members, were whipped in and voted it down solidly? Further, is he aware - I am sure he is because he was present at the meeting before last of the CPP - that he was asked, as Minister of State and chairman of the Dáil reform committee, to deal with that specific issue and come back to the next meeting with that proposal? That would be a sign of his good will and that he is really interested in Dáil reform. I would have deep suspicions about a Government package, prepared by the people on the list I have. I do not see any value in it. I hope the Minister will agree with me that there is no value in it in a bilateral context. I presume the document is complicated and I shall need to refer a copy of it to my party before we can proceed further with it. Let the Minister of State not expect this to be stampeded through.

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