John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. There is to be a paltry reduction in the number of Deputies from 166 to 158, although the Minister's party spoke about a reduction of 20. Personally, I do not agree with any reduction and believe the number should have been left at 166. As Deputy Calleary noted, there are many people who, although they may throw rotten oranges and apples at us from time to time, like to have access to their politicians and be able to come in and have a chat. In this country politicians are generally people-friendly in comparison with those in other countries. I had two old aunties, God rest them, who lived in England and used to come home every year. They could never believe that I or Deputy Howlin or whoever was a Deputy at the time would sit in a hotel and allow people to drop in off the street and have a chat without making an appointment. If they wanted to see their MP they might be waiting three to six months. It would be a pity to change that system here. We should always ensure that Deputies are available to the people. That is the reason I do not at all agree with either the Minister or my own party about the proposal to reduce the number from 166 to 158. The number of TDs should be left alone.

I have always had a notion about the Boundary Commission and had many arguments with the former Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Noel Dempsey, in this regard. This group of people makes the decisions; they are like God and their decisions cannot be changed even though some of them are way off-kilter. Under the second last review there was no Deputy from County Leitrim, which was a farcical situation. I learned from a BBC programme during the week that the House of Lords was voting against a boundary review committee decision, which meant the matter would have to return to the Government. Boundary commissions should not be all-powerful and have the final say, with no Minister prepared to make any change, perhaps because of a possible backlash from the media. I refer to what Deputy Calleary stated. I was talking to some west of Ireland Deputies recently who told me that if any change was to be made, it should have been to join west and east Galway rather than throwing part of Mayo into west Galway.

Before the last election the Minister said much about reform, reform of this House and reform of the Seanad and it appears the Government will abolish the Seanad. However, I think the people will take a different view when the issue appears before them as we are doing away with too many strands of democracy. The Minister, Deputy Hogan, has decided with the sweep of a brush to do away with town councils and to have municipal authorities. As town councils were at the heart of the community and were part and parcel of the community it is a wrong decision. I admit that the former Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Noel Dempsey, was probably thinking on those lines also and, perhaps, the Minister placed it on the table and decided to proceed with the Fianna Fáil document. It is a wrong decision to do away with town councils. I am sure if the Minister of State, Deputy John Perry, were speaking from the heart he would probably agree with those sentiments. Few countries are doing away with democratic sectors. If we do away with town councils and the Seanad all we are left with is county councils and the Dáil system and people will not be properly represented in that scenario. For that reason I ask the Minister to look again at the issue.

Last November marked my service of 30 years as a Member of this House, some would say too long. Nothing has changed in the area of reform. The Minister and the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Deputy Paul Kehoe, made a decision to introduce a Topical Issue debate. Given the number of members putting their names forward for that debate it is almost impossible to get on the clár. In respect of issues that are relevant and important to a constituency today it is important that a representative of that constituency would have an opportunity to raise a matter on the day it arises. Sometimes two or three weeks elapse before one can make one's point. The issue may concern the loss of jobs, the closure of a factory or other major changes in the constituency. This is not the fault of the Ceann Comhairle as he is allowed only a certain number of topical issues per day. The system needs to be looked at again and changed and the operation of the House needs to be made more relevant to the day to day issues in our constituencies.

The replies from Ministers to parliamentary questions are becoming less and less informative. Perhaps the Government backbenchers are getting more concise replies than we on this side get. Many of the replies are not replies at all. If the matter concerns the National Roads Authority, the Health Service Executive or many other State bodies, the usual reply from the Minister is that the matter has been passed on to the HSE or the NRA. At the end of the day, the Minister of the day is responsible for all these organisations and should be in a position to provide a concise answer without having to wait for a month or two before the HSE, the NRA or some other body decides to reply. That system needs to be changed.

I have been present for many Friday sittings which start at 10.30 a.m. and usually finish at 1 p.m. There is no Order of Business or Leaders' Question and no real Dáil business is done except the Bill that is taken. If we are to have Friday sittings they should be proper sittings with a full Dáil system in operation on the day, otherwise we should forget about farcical Friday sittings. What is happening is not relevant and is certainly not good enough.

In regard to the Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012, I do not agree with the proposal to reduce the number of Deputies or some of the changes to the boundaries. I had hoped that the Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, who portrays himself as a tough Minister would be prepared to take tough decisions. I argued with many, during our time in government, that the boundary review commission report should not be sacrosanct, whereby no changes could be made. Some changes were farcical and left many without public representation and counties which had no contact with each other were joined up. As Deputy Calleary said if wrong decisions are made there should be a mechanism in place to allow the Minister make the change or an appeals system should be put in place to enable a further review of the situation. Generally, I support the Bill and hope the Minister will be prepared to take some amendments on Committee Stage.

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