Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to address some areas under the justice brief which falls within my remit as Fianna Fáil spokesperson on justice. I regret that the Minister for Justice and Equality did not remain in the Chamber to hear my reply because I am about to pay him a compliment. He has been described by some as a reforming Minister, with which I will not disagree . However, I will qualify this description by noting that he is no more reforming than any previous Minister for Justice because the law constantly requires updating and reformation and, while he is doing that, so too did all of his predecessors, to all of whom credit also is due. The mantra that the Minister is the only one to have engaged in reform simply is not the case. However, he is engaged in reform, which is to his credit.

This week's exercise in having statements on Government priorities has been quite curious. It is not good enough that Members have no Government-sponsored legislation to process through the Houses of the Oireachtas this week. The only legislation that is being taken is in Private Members' time, which this week happens to be the turn of Fianna Fáil. When the Government parties were on this side of the House, one heard plenty of criticism from them about the lack of legislation being progressed from time to time by the previous Administration. However, this week, in which no legislation is coming through, simply is not good enough and smacks of hypocrisy in respect of political reform.

Speaking of political reform, the Government has objectively failed in this regard. One classic example of the optics of political reform in which the Government has engaged concerns the Friday sittings. I have described the Friday sittings previously as a sham and will continue to so describe them. I have attended most such sittings and on most occasions the Minister responsible for the Bill that is being sponsored by a Private Member is not present to respond. It happened on the previous first Friday, as well as on the first Friday before that, and I was present in both cases. I note that on the last occasion the Minister for Justice and Equality had an informal engagement, but it was not a formal engagement. The proof of the pudding is that no Opposition Bill that has not been voted down by the Government - in other words, that has been accepted in principle by the Government - has progressed beyond Second Stage. This is the proof that the Government's intent in respect of political reform is all optics. While it will facilitate one so far, it will not follow it through. The referendum on the Seanad was a fundamental attack on our democratic institutions and the people of Ireland rightly voted down the Government proposal to abolish the Seanad. In other areas of political reform, one can see that the Taoiseach now is available to answer questions in the Chamber for less time than any of his predecessors. I refer to the accumulated time between Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as he is not present on Thursdays.

If one adds up the amount of time he is here, it is less than any of his predecessors.

I mention some of the legislation processed under the justice brief. The personal insolvency legislation was a huge disappointment because it gave the banks a veto in terms of negotiating with distressed borrowers. It put the banks at the centre of the decision-making process and all reasonable commentators asked that the banks would not have a veto and that there would be an independent arbitrator and an independent appeals office built into the process. The statistics beginning to come out of the Insolvency Service of Ireland are quite disappointing and back up what we pointed out when the legislation was going through this House that it would not be the success the Government was heralding it to be. My party put forward proposals, through my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, to establish an independent statutorily-based debt settlement office which would have the powers to back it up as an independent office. The Government should have taken that on board and acted on it.

The Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act was a huge disappointment which put more power into the hands of the banks to evict people and to effect home repossessions. The Government should look at it as a priority and consider repealing some of the draconian powers conferred on the banks to undertake home repossessions.

I heard what the Minister said about his reform proposals in regard to the Judiciary. The Government needs to mend fences with the Judiciary. We must have a separation of powers but, unfortunately, we had a very unseemly argument between the Minister and the Judiciary a number of months ago which could have been quite serious. Thankfully, that was averted.

We had a very lengthy debate on the closure of the 139 Garda stations. Communities felt very let down by the Minister, the Government, the Labour Party and Government backbenchers depriving them of their community-based members of An Garda Síochána, We were promised that they would be replaced by Garda clinics but they were not. I have asked the Minister on a number of occasions about the roll-out of the replacement Garda clinics but he was unable to tell me anything, which is not good enough.

The Garda recruitment campaign was mentioned. Many people have an interest in it, in particular members of the Garda Reserve who feel disappointed and let down that they were not given priority. Something quite interesting was pointed out to me yesterday in regard to the online examination for the recruitment campaign. Apparently, applicants are getting other people to do the online examination for them and I have written to the Minister in that regard.

This Government should do the right thing by people. Our colleague, Deputy Mick Wallace, was treated disgracefully on national television by the Minister who still has to own up to his role in using private privileged and confidential information he got in a briefing to seek to discredit the Deputy. The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission was treated appallingly by the Minister. The Taoiseach and the Minister sought to undermine it, which we discussed in the House, and they need to own up to their part in trying to undermine the independent office of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

Sergeant Maurice McCabe is owed an apology by the Minister and the Government for the way he has been treated and for the way the Minister spoke in this House about his alleged non-co-operation with the O'Mahony inquiry. Yesterday, the former confidential recipient, Mr. Oliver Connolly, issued a statement. The Taoiseach has said he hopes he will co-operate with the Guerin inquiry. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality will seek Mr. Connolly's attendance in due course, but he did not address the elephant in the room in his four page statement, namely, his comments to Sergeant McCabe that the Minister would seek to get him and finish him if he continued with what he was doing.

On the social agenda, I will be an enthusiastic supporter of the referendum on marriage equality. I noted that the Government stated 2014 would be a referendum-free year, which is nonsense. The local and European Parliament elections will be held this year and there is no reason a referendum on the establishment of the family law court or on marriage equality could not be held alongside them given that it costs the State anywhere between €16 million and €20 million to stage a referendum. The Government has a knack of losing referendums but it can thank my party and other parties for assisting it in passing the referendum on the court of appeal. The Minister was quick to take a bit of the credit for that but other parties in this House campaigned for a successful result in the referendum on the court of appeal. We will also campaign for a successful result in the referendum on marriage equality.

If the Government was to have one priority for the remainder of this Dáil, it should be to treat people equitably and fairly in its policies. Unfortunately, we have not seen that so far. Independent commentators - for example, the ESRI - have concluded and reported on many occasions that this Government and its policies are exceptionally regressive in that they affect the most vulnerable and the people who can least afford to pay the most. The Government needs to prioritise equity and fairness.

A constituent of mine was featured on the front of the Irish Examinerin October 2013. She is a cancer patient who had her medical card taken from her. She went through the machinery of the State and I raised the issue in the Dáil. It was only yesterday, following an appeal, that she got her medical card back from the HSE appeals office in County Donegal, the county in which Deputy Pádraig MacLochlainn resides and which he represents. For a cancer patient going through all the associated treatment who has had a double mastectomy to have to go through that in order to hold on to a medical card is disgraceful. I raised the issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, at the time but, unfortunately, she had to go through the wringer to get a medical card, which is not good enough. Equity and fairness should be a priority of the Government but we have not seen this.

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