Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 5, inclusive, together.

The programme for Government sets out an ambitious Oireachtas reform agenda, which includes a referendum on the abolition of the Seanad, the enhancing of the Oireachtas committee system and the reform of Dáil Éireann. A restricted use of the guillotine and a minimum period of time between each stage of a Bill’s progress through the Dáil, except in exceptional circumstances, are both part of this reform agenda. While it is impossible to abolish the use of a guillotine or fix minimum periods of time before stages of a Bill in every case, it is the absolute intention over the lifetime of the Government that both the use of the guillotine and the accelerated passage of legislation increasingly will be less of a feature of the work of the Oireachtas.

The Government Chief Whip, the Minister of State, Deputy Paul Kehoe, along with Dáil Whips from all the political parties and the Technical Group, the Ceann Comhairle, the chair of the working group of committee chairs and officials in Leinster House have been involved in developing the second phase of Dáil and Oireachtas committee reforms. The Dáil Reform Sub-Committee of the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privileges has discussed detailed reform proposals which will expand the role of the committee system, allow for an improved Topical Issue system and expand the amount of debate time allocated to legislation in the Dáil. The Government Chief Whip proposes to bring forward this second phase of Dáil reform in the coming months with the new procedures in place by later this year. The process of Oireachtas reform is ongoing and following the introduction of the second phase of Dáil reforms, consultation on further Oireachtas reforms will take place involving all the Dáil Whips.

The Government has already made progress in a number of areas of Oireachtas reform. In July 2011, after four months in office, the Government introduced the first phase of Oireachtas reform with a package of Dáil reforms that included an additional Leaders' Questions session, taken by the Tánaiste, on Thursdays, the introduction of Topical Issue debates, Friday sittings to give Deputies the opportunity to introduce their own Bills, thereby enhancing the legislative role of Deputies, and a procedure to allow Deputies raise issues regarding replies to parliamentary questions with the Ceann Comhairle. Moreover, in 2011, a new Oireachtas committee system was established that introduced a number of programme for Government reforms designed to enhance the committee system. First, the number of Oireachtas committees was reduced from 25 to 16. Second, Bills can now be referred to Oireachtas committees before publication in order that they are involved at an early stage in the development of legislation and, third, a Joint Committee on Investigations, Oversight and Petitions, chaired by a member of the Opposition, was established.

In June 2012, the Oireachtas committee system was further re-structured with the establishment of an Oireachtas committee on jobs to focus solely on this area of Government priority, the establishment of an Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to deal with the increased workload in this area in light of changes to the Common Agricultural Policy and the merger of the role of Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement with that of the Irish Co-Chair of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly.

The programme for Government has committed to increasing the number of Dáil sitting days by 50%. The Government already has reduced the length of Dáil breaks at Christmas, at Easter, after bank holidays and during the summer and has introduced regular Friday sitting. A comparison of sitting days between 2008, the first full year in office of the previous Government, and 2012, the first full year in office of this Government, shows an increase from 96 sitting days in 2008 to 123 in 2012.

On 5 June, in line with the programme for Government, a Bill was published to allow for the holding of a referendum in the autumn on the abolition of the Seanad. As part of that announcement a set of Dáil reform proposals was outlined, which included reforms that are desired for the move to a unicameral - one chamber - system. These include expanding the current system of sending heads of a Bill to committee for consideration before the Bill is published; the introduction of a new pre-enactment Stage to allow for extra consideration and scrutiny: each Bill will be referred back to the committee that considered it at pre-legislative and Committee Stages for a final examination after Report Stage before the Bill is passed by the House; Ministers will come before the relevant select committee within 12 months of the enactment of a Bill to discuss and review the functioning of the law and to allow for a debate from members and stakeholders as to whether the legislation is fulfilling its intended purpose; the establishment of a new Oireachtas committee system with 14 Dáil committees: four strategic committees on issues of major strategic and political importance including the Committee of Public Accounts, Finance and EU scrutiny, seven sectoral committees to shadow Government Departments, and three thematic committees which will focus on specific issues such as the Ombudsman and petitions, the Good Friday Agreement and Members' interests. It is envisaged that each committee will have 12 members and will invite external experts to provide specialist input to its work; the Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill will enable Oireachtas committees to undertake parliamentary inquires into certain matters of major public importance. A separate administrative system will ensure they function smoothly; and the d'Hondt system will distribute chairs of Oireachtas committees on a proportional and equitable basis across parties.

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