Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State needs to clarify urgently in a statement what access he had to the Cabinet meetings of previous Governments.

I put it to him that, of course, there has been rolling Dáil reform. It includes the ending of the dual mandate between local government and the Dáil. The bringing in of Leaders' Questions was an initiative of a previous Government. Initiatives like the establishment of the Standards in Public Office Commission constituted political reform around the financing of politics and the changes to donations and the thresholds around it, so the assertion that nothing happened in terms of political reform is completely wrong and untrue.

During the general election, every political party said there would be very radical change in how Parliament operates, but the people have been disappointed in terms of what they were promised and the commitments that were made to them. I put it to the Minister of State that what would constitute radical reform would be permitting the appointment of Ministers who are not necessarily Members of the Oireachtas so that people with particular expertise in certain policy areas could be invited to serve in the Cabinet by a future Taoiseach. One can do that already. One could change the law to allow Ministers of State to be invited in from external sectors. That is the kind of issue we should be debating in terms of re-connecting with the public's wish for reform of how we do our work. We are unique as a Legislature in that we insist that a person must be a Member of the Oireachtas to be a member of Cabinet, a Minister. That is something the Government could change. I am not talking about any individuals but the office of An Ceann Comhairle in future Parliaments could be elected by secret ballot. The idea would be to generate a separate corporate identity for the Parliament vis-à-vis the Government of the day because we need more oversight.

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