Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I thank my colleague, Deputy Brendan Howlin, for tabling this motion. From an ineffective political system that was not nearly as probing and inquisitive as it should have been, we have seen numerous revelations of waste in our institutions of Government that have discredited these institutions and undermined faith in the operation of our State. This ineffective approach can also be attributed to the lack of rigour in the application of our regulatory systems which were supposed to protect the public interest but have left us with a colossal bill for a broken banking system.

Trust in politics is at an all-time low and for that trust to be rebuilt we in this House must take the lead by engaging in processes of renewal on how we run our country. The dodging of Government responsibility is no longer acceptable and it extends to all aspects of how we conduct our business. The proposals put forward in this motion, from reducing the Government monopoly over the Dáil to empowering committees to carry out their work effectively, are practical proposals that could be implemented and which would address many of the issues that hamper effective legislative delivery and erode public confidence in politics.

Proposals such as restoring the Freedom of Information Act to its original intended purpose, reforming appointments to State boards and introducing rules relating to lobbying would introduce greater transparency into our democratic processes. Restricting for two years the appointments that public servants, including political appointees, can take up in the private sector where there are areas of conflict of interest, should not just be common sense, it should be statutory law.

To have accountability we must have responsibility. How many times have we heard in this House, when questions are asked about the operation of various arms of the State, whether it is the HSE in health or the Irish Sports Council, the Arts Council or Fáilte Ireland, in my brief of tourism, culture and sport, that the Minister has no official responsibility to Dáil Éireann in the matter? We have handed over responsibility for the formulation of public policy and distribution of public moneys to bodies that are not accountable to the electorate. To the public, this situation is impossible to explain.

In the tourism and sports policy documents I published for the Labour Party this year, I called for the recentralisation of policy development to the respective Departments. This is a practical first step that will strengthen the democratic accountability of policy and decisions relating to the expenditure of public funding. The respective Ministers and their Departments would be responsible to Dáil Éireann and to the citizens of the State in a way that semi-State organisations or quangos are not. This would increase ownership of a policy as well as responsibility for it.

The responses from the Government on these issues have been characteristically tame in their breadth and late in their delivery. We are three years into the current Government and it is a year since the revised programme for Government, yet nothing has been delivered with regard to reforming our institutions of State. The revised programme for Government document provided a few token gestures to satisfy the foot-stamping Members of the Green Party in the full knowledge that none of them would ever see the light of day - the token gestures, that is, not the Green Party Members. It is reassuring to know, however, that they are welcomed profusely in the amendment. This is what one might call a céad míle fáilte at its best but with no delivery of any product or progress.

As public representatives, we should be the standard bearers for best practice in public office and, by extension, civil society because we represent our constituents not only in this House but also internationally. The shameful and costly proceedings of the past decade in Dublin Castle have done much to embed cynical notions of politicians into the public consciousness. What were always the actions of a few have created a sense of "a plague on all your houses". These notions can become self-fulfilling which is detrimental to public discourse and our ability to address the many challenges we face.

Since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008, we have often heard public expressions of dissatisfaction on the workings of the House. The public, at a time of great uncertainty, have looked to us for leadership. This means they are looking for experience, competency and vision. There is no shortage of the traits of leadership in this House, rather there is a shortage of the will to lead. The Labour Party is prepared to lead and is prepared to introduce the changes that will ensure Government is held responsible for the delivery of outcomes. It will be no more a business-as-usual approach where Ministers queue up to take responsibility for success and pass the buck for fiascoes such as PPARS or the electronic voting machines. As a result of these past errors, we must now try to chart a new course in Irish politics and civil society by rebuilding our economy in a fair and just way. Starting from the top, with the proposals contained in this motion, the Labour Party has the ideas and the will to make those changes a reality.

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