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

Fine. I accept that. An argument has been put forward in the public domain to which I now subscribe and have included in my party's policy, which we submitted to the Government, to the effect that, in future, it would be good for the Parliament if it elected the Ceann Comhairle by secret ballot. People might disagree with that view, but it is a legitimate suggestion for parliamentary reform. That is the context in which I made the suggestion. It is the concept of who guards the guards. I do not mean the Garda, but oversight by the regulators. There is no strong parliamentary oversight committee in this House. The only aspect of financial regulation that has changed has been the personalities. In terms of how regulators behave, the fundamental structure and relationship between Parliament and regulation has not changed at all. This principle has not been addressed in the context of political reform.

As to the idea of the Parliament having its own identity and challenging the Executive of the day, regardless of who comprises the Executive, people want this kind of fundamental change, not the changes that this Government only makes for the optics. The Minister of State's feeble attempt to put down Deputy Mathews illustrates my point. It is not a question of whether the Deputy belongs to a new technical group. That is not the point he was making. It is wrong that Governments should decide that people cannot sit on committees because they objected to Government proposals of the day. A Government backbencher can be expelled from a party if that is the Government's wish, but he or she might have been serving well on a health or finance committee for two years. Just because he or she has had one disagreement with the Government on an issue, this Government decides to remove the person from a committee.

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