Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

I also welcome the Bill. I pick up on a theme mentioned by Deputy Buttimer, which is the role of Parliament in political life. There is one consequence the Bill cannot be allowed to have. As we move to reduce the size of our political system, it cannot be done at the expense of reducing the effectiveness of the political system or the total amount of politics and democracy available in our public life. That can really only be done if measures are put in place to increase the power of Parliament and make this a proper Parliament as opposed to a Chamber that can be dominated by Government.

A recent survey evaluated the effectiveness of different parliaments across similar sized countries. Of the 31 parliaments surveyed, we ranked 29th in the effectiveness of Parliament based on oversight, holding Government to account and particularly in giving a role to backbenchers. A recent article on the operation of the new parliament in the UK indicated that one of the innovations there was to give greater ability to backbenchers to raise matters they believed to be of national or local interest, which is something of which we continue to be deprived. There is a waiting list of matters to be raised on the Adjournment. Our inability to do that impairs our ability to carry out one of the roles for which we are elected, which is to raise local or national matters we believe to be important. I strongly support moves to reduce the size of our political system and that should be done. As we have seen change in the size and operation of every other public service, the same should happen to our political system. However, when talking about reform of our public services, we also need to talk about proper reform of what happens here. I believe the Government is committed to doing that and Members on the Government side as well as those in opposition have an incentive to see it happen.

I wish to speak about the calling of by-elections. I participated in the Dublin Central by-election caused by the sad death of Tony Gregory in the last Dáil. How that was handled was nothing short of a farce and did real damage to the legitimacy and value we seek to accord to being a Member of this House. The insight that must underscore all of that is that being a Deputy and having a seat in this Chamber does not make that seat the property of anybody elected to it. I stand here representing Dublin Central and that seat is owned by the people. The people through Parliament should have an expectation regarding when that seat should be filled if a vacancy arises for whatever reason. Therefore it is important that the Bill introduces a bounded time limit as to when that should happen.

I welcome the changes to the spending limits on presidential elections, but I would like to see that extended. We should consider the cost involved in participating in a general election campaign and find ways to ensure that money of itself does not have a disproportionate role in deciding how people get elected. Having contested a number of elections and knowing the amount of money I have spent on general elections, I recognise that in retrospect the effect of that money is always far less than I might have considered at the time. The qualities that still continue to be decisive at election time are the amount of work a candidate puts into getting elected, the quality of what is said and how he or she communicates it. We ought to ensure that the power of money is regulated and restrained at all times.

I conclude on the role of Parliament and strengthening the role of democracy - not just reducing it. I saw a very encouraging sign of that yesterday when the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, brought a proposal to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht regarding legislation he is planning to draft. He invited the committee to revert to him in four weeks with its input on what should be in that Bill before he begins drafting it. Those kinds of measures give testament to the intent we have to reform these Chambers and reform political life.

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