Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-North Leitrim, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate and I thank the Minister of State for sharing his time. The motion we have heard this evening from the Labour Party covers an extremely broad range of areas. The Labour Party motion proposes a wide variety of measures, including in regard to matters of Cabinet confidentiality, the Freedom of Information Act, whistleblowers' legislation, spending limits for elections, contributions to political parties, registration of lobbyists, Dáil reform, the establishment of an independent fiscal advisory council, bringing forward the Estimates cycle, publication of the Attorney General's advice in specified circumstances, increased powers for Oireachtas committees and amendments to the Ministers and Secretaries Acts and the Public Service Management Act.

As the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, has already told the House, the Government has already been and continues to be active in progressing these areas, many of which are already outlined in the renewed programme for Government. The motion calls for the restoration of the Freedom of Information Act 1997 to its original form and scope and the extension of its remit to the Garda Síochána and other public bodies.

From my perspective as an elected representative, I believe that freedom of information legislation has been an important development in our modern democratic system and has helped to improve the engagement between the citizen and the Administration. The Government does not support the Labour Party motion's proposal to overturn key provisions in the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act 2003. These provisions were introduced to ensure the appropriate balance between facilitating public access to information and the proper functioning of government.

As Deputies are aware, the Department of Finance keeps the number of bodies covered by the Act under regular review. There are over 500 bodies at the current time. I understand that a number of bodies have been identified as possibly being suitable for freedom of information coverage and the Department of Finance is currently examining how the Act might apply to these bodies. In particular, it should be noted that the renewed programme for Government states the Freedom of Information Acts will be expanded to include certain administrative matters in the Garda Síochána.

The Departments of Finance and Justice and Law Reform are currently examining the various issues and challenges relating to the extension of the Act to specific administrative functions within the Garda Síochána. The group will identify administrative functions for freedom of information coverage, together with recommendations and an implementation plan for approval by the Ministers for Justice and Law Reform and Finance.

The motion also calls for the introduction of a programme of reform that would include spending limits for local and presidential elections and a reduction in the ceilings for European and general elections. The Electoral Act 1997, as amended, provides for spending limits at general, European and presidential elections. The following expenditure limits applied to candidates at the most recent relevant elections: €230,000 for the European Parliament in 2009; in the 2007 Dáil election €45,200 for a five-seat constituency, €37,650 for a four-seat constituency and €30,150 for a three-seat constituency; and €1.3 million for the presidential election in 2004. In the current economic climate, there will be no difficulty keeping under those figures and I would not object if they were reduced.

I understand legislation providing for spending limits at local elections was put in place in 2009 by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. These limits range from €7,500 to €15,000, depending on the population within a local electoral area and the specific type of election. As Deputies know, these limits applied for the first time at the local elections held in that year. The Government is also currently giving consideration to approaches to effect changes to provide for further controls on political donations and political funding.

Turning to lobbying, it is right that the regulation of lobbyists, including the introduction of a register, is being considered by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who will bring proposals to Government. That needs to be done.

As regards Dáil reform, I understand that proposals were brought before the relevant forum, namely, the sub-committee of the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privileges specifically concerned with Dáil reform. The proposals included many useful ideas such as increased sitting days, consolidating the amount of time that the Taoiseach and Opposition leaders would spend in the House, starting the Dáil earlier each day and dealing with the current position about promised legislation only once a week. I welcome these proposals and believe that they would enable the Dáil to be more reactive to issues which become newsworthy on any given day. These proposals are in addition to the opportunity that Leaders' Questions in particular affords Opposition leaders in the House.

As somebody who spent five years in the Seanad, I fully concur with the view that it is important that whether one is in Government, the backbenches or an Independent Deputy, there are issues of the day which affect one's local constituency. It is important that Deputies of all parties should have an opportunity to raise relevant issues on a particular day.

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