Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her questions. We have already introduced a change whereby if, for example, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, brings the heads of a Bill to Government and states that he wants to prepare legislation based on the general principles outlined, those heads will be referred to the relevant committee which will examine the principles involved. The committee in question will then decide from whom it should take presentations in order to inform itself of the position in respect of the various issues which arise. The committee will assess whether there are public groups or whatever which might wish to make observations on the legislation and will then invite them to come before it. When it has completed this process, the committee will make recommendations to the Minister and he will bring all of the relevant information back to the Government and seek permission to proceed to prepare a Bill. When this is drafted, it will be introduced in the House and Members will contribute to the debate on Second Stage. It will then be referred to the committee to which the heads were originally referred. That committee will consider what has and what has not been included and whether any matters have been brought to light since its initial deliberations. It will go through the Bill line by line and then refer it back to the Dáil where Report Stage will be taken. When this reform is implemented, there will then be a pre-enactment stage whereby we will be able to assess whether anything has been missed or discuss any issues have been brought to our attention by interested individuals or groups. When, in the future, legislation is passed by the House and signed into law, the relevant Minister will return - within 12 months - to the committee which originally dealt with in order to reflect on how well it has worked, whether it has fulfilled its purpose, whether there is full accountability and transparency in respect of it and whether the intent behind it has been translated into reality in the interests of the people.

The committee systems which obtain in other countries cannot be directly translated to the Irish Parliament.

Many of the ways they do business are well worth seeing in the interests of that openness, transparency and accountability about which they talk.

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