Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

I challenge the point made by Deputy Boyd Barrett that our participation in the IMF-EU plan is destroying democracy and has removed our sovereignty. I note that he qualified the remark towards the end of his contribution. The IMF and EU are not dictating to us what the rights of children should be. They are not dictating to us how we should organise and run our schools and hospitals. Neither are they dictating what our response should be to the killing of Osama bin Laden. They are a variety of themes and issues that also form a vibrant and important part of our sovereignty. There is no doubt that the economic element of sovereignty has been compromised, but there are still areas within which the Government can make decisions on what it wants to do. On many other social aspects of our sovereignty - some of the areas to which Deputy Corcoran Kennedy referred at the start of her contribution - an elected Government still decides what those decisions are and those issues still matter very much to the people whom it serves.

The nation is facing up to an array of challenges, some of the biggest problems the 21st century is capable of producing. Despite that, we are working with a 19th century state in terms of the institutions we have. This morning when we voted on the Order of Business I looked up at the Visitors Gallery. A number of schoolchildren were visiting, all clad in uniform and looking with interest at what we were discussing and how we were voting. Reform of the Dáil and other institutions of State is essential not only to the future prosperity of those schoolchildren but also to securing their interest in politics and gaining an understanding of how it works. The overhaul of the institutions in the Dáil so that it matches up to contemporary life and its challenges is essential not only to our future prosperity but also to the interest people have in politics and to their continuing to give consent to being governed by us.

I wish to make a number of practical suggestions on Dáil reform. They come under two areas, first, how the institutions and the Dáil work and, second, how the Dáil and our work in it is perceived. The point has been made continually about our involvement in the budgetary process. Members of the Opposition will have good ideas about how the economy should be conducted and operated just as when we were in opposition we had Members with good ideas too. The power and oversight is concentrated on the Government side of the House. The lack of oversight and ability of Members of both Houses to contribute to the budgetary process and the oversight of it is an important element in contributing to the collapse we are trying to get out of now. The Government has proposals on a fiscal council, the overhaul of the budgetary process and the role of committees that are hugely important to the future and must be implemented promptly during this term of office.

The second point relates to the interaction of the Dáil with regulators. One topical example of the problem relates to my experience as a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport in the previous term. The taxi regulator was regularly invited before the committee. Questions were often asked about the existence of a €30 million surplus in its bank account and the operation of its agency. However, one television programme has got more prompt action from the regulator than hours of hearings in an Oireachtas committee with all the main executives in attendance. That shows the weakness of the committee system in engaging with such people. We must find a way of strengthening that system vis-À-vis the various regulators who affect all aspects of our lives.

One aspect of the operation of the committee system gives me cause for concern. I refer to the proposal for a referendum on the Abbeylara judgment. That must be done. I hope the people will consent to the referendum being passed. One of the things it would do is confer upon the committee system and the Dáil structure powers that are quasi-judicial. We must put great care into how those powers are exercised. I am pleased to have had an opportunity to speak on the matter. The implementation of the programme of Dáil reform is vital to the success of this term in the House.

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