John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Griffin for sharing his time. Having only been a Member of this House for a few weeks, it may seem a bit cheeky to be talking about Dáil reform. However, the procedures that operate in this House are in need of radical overhaul and I look forward to the new Government doing so. There are three levels of reform that I would like to see introduced, namely, reform of the electoral system, reform of how the Oireachtas processes legislation and reform to make the Oireachtas and in particular this Chamber more relevant to matters of immediate national concern by allowing people to raise topical issues on a daily basis. Under our current system, the Whip is very strong. I have no problem with either the Government Whip or the Deputy Government Whip, but like the previous speaker I believe there are certain matters on which it should be up to the discretion of Members to make their own judgment in a freer fashion.

The current system does not allow input by Government backbench or Opposition Deputies and inevitably Deputies find themselves fulfilling the role they are able to perform, which invariably involves dealing with a considerable amount of constituency work. It is an important role of any public representative. A Member of the Dáil is not just a legislator but also has a role as a Deputy and is here to represent the people in his or her constituency who are not here. While that is an important function, it should not form the majority of the work of any Deputy.

There is a strong need to reform how we elect Members of this House. For a long time I have felt that the multi-seat constituency system is not conducive to electing the best people to Dáil Éireann. As someone who has been both elected and defeated by that system, I feel it is in need of radical reform. I do not know if the Government has made any specific proposals on that area. I believe it has rightly proposed reducing the number of Deputies. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has spoken about giving renewed and additional powers to local government which might result in a more efficient delivery of local services with less need for constituents to contact national representatives on local issues, which I welcome.

The media pays much attention to the amount of time the Dáil sits, which does not make much sense to me. We could sit every day of the week and not perform properly or correctly. The procedures to be adopted in the House could make things much more efficient and give a meaningful role to Deputies on all sides of the House rather than just considering it in the very rough measure of the number of days the Dáil sits. I welcome the Government's commitment to reforming the committee system and to introducing a referendum to extend the powers of committees to compel people to come before them.

During debates there is a need for more interaction between Members, including people giving way and having real questioning of Ministers and questioning of people's ideas. I do not see that at present and when reform again comes to the top of the agenda I hope that the Whip will be able to implement that.

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