Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

As I rise to participate in this debate, it occurs to me that the party and Independent Whips may be accused of having had something of a love-in. There has been positive engagement between us all and a collegial approach to the reform agenda. My party is unhappy with some of the elements contained in this package, but we will not oppose it, as we see merit in a number of its proposals. We are fully committed to the process embarked upon by the Chief Whip and the incremental approach being taken. We will work with him on phases two and three. We are also struck by the fact that he has given firm commitments to the effect that none of this is written in stone and that we are taking these proposals through a trial process. We expect he will honour his commitment that, if we find particular problems with these arrangements while we are working them out, matters can be revisited.

In the first weeks after the general election, all parties and groups expressed their absolute commitment to significant reform of the Dáil. A consistent theme was the need to increase significantly the opportunities for Deputies to hold the Government to account for its actions and to loosen the tight control exercised by the Government on the House's substantive business. The Taoiseach has repeatedly confirmed his intention to support radical reform.

Regrettably, while the package before the House has merit, in no way does it deliver on the substantial reforms promised by the Government. No single measure marks a radical departure in how we conduct business and a wide swathe of the promises contained in the past five years of Fine Gael and Labour policy documents are nowhere to be seen. Most disturbingly, key elements of the package mark a retrograde step, not least in terms of the answerability of the Taoiseach to the House. It is striking that the only significant change to our daily business is that of the topical issue debate, which I must welcome because it was included in the package of proposals initiated by Mr. John Curran, my predecessor as Fianna Fáil Whip.

It is also regrettable that the Government has chosen to spend so much time making fundamentally false allegations about the issue of reform by claiming there have been no reforms in the past 14 years. Deputy Lyons can be forgiven his allusion, as he was not a Member for the past 14 years, but other Members know that significant change was introduced by successive Fianna Fáil-led Governments.

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