Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

I believe we are all agreed that the people demanded political reform in the recent general election. I recently saw a survey that showed that politicians were by far the least trusted professionals in Ireland - we are lower down the scale than lawyers by a large amount. I commend the Government on some of its recent proposals. If it manages to get through many of the things it proposes, there will be some genuine much needed reform.

In particular I applaud the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government on his proposal on female candidates in general elections. That will be genuinely revolutionary. I am delighted to see it and fully support it. I suggest that a serious emphasis should be put on accountability in the Minister's proposals on local government. If we are going to have local funding and devolution of power we need serious accountability which does not appear to be there at the moment. I hope we see more of that.

I also welcome the proposal in the Government's amendment for forthcoming legislation on whistleblowers, which is much needed in Irish society. In particular I commend the Minister, Deputy Howlin, and the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, on their contributions yesterday. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, explicitly addressed the motion tabled by the Technical Group and agreed with many of the ideas therein, for which I thank him. I note the passionate and convincing contribution of the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, on how the balance of power between the Executive and the Dáil does not seem to be in a healthy place. Rebalancing this is critical and I hope we will see some substantive moves in that direction.

There has been considerable debate over the past two days on various aspects of reforming the Seanad, Dáil and local government. I wish to concentrate this evening specifically on Dáil reform. It is widely accepted in the political science community that Ireland has the most centralised power of any government in western Europe and it is widely accepted that this is not a good thing. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, spoke eloquently on the subject yesterday. I wish to make four observations as a new Deputy coming to the House.

There appears to be a lack of regulatory impact analysis. There appears to be a lack of meaningful debate with Ministers on their proposed legislation. We do not yet appear to have method for Government backbenchers or Opposition Members to interrogate Ministers on specific issues. There is a blanket opposition through the party whip system. There appears to be a lack of transparency in Cabinet decision making. I accept some of that is necessary but it seems to be quite extreme.

Let me use the jobs initiative, which is extremely important, as an example. I believe we would all accept that taking €1.8 billion out of pensions is a very serious thing to do. Yet as a Member of the Dáil trying to represent the people of County Wicklow and east County Carlow and being asked to vote on the Bill, I have no information as to the projected benefits.

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