Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I dtús báire, labhróidh mé beagán faoin duine a bhí sa phost roimhe seo, an tUasal Kieran Coughlan. We remember the work Kieran did in his quiet, mild manner. When we were first elected to the House one of the first people we met was the then Clerk of the Dáil and a relationship with him grew. It was not political in any sense. He was a classic civil servant and I still do not know what his political views are. In many ways, what the Minister is asking us to do today is to put in place an appointments system which will put somebody like him in that position in the future, somebody who can rise above the party political rows and arguments we have and the party political demands we will make and work according to the rules that are set out.

The Minister outlined the responsibilities of those who take up the role of Clerk of the Dáil and Clerk Assistant. It is an onerous job. What we are discussing today is ensuring that we have a mechanism in the future that we can stand over and that is not party political in any sense. That is where some of my problems with the Bill lie. The intention is to ensure that it will never be in the gift of a political party in the future to appoint somebody of such importance. The job is important. The Minister listed a number of the duties involved. I will not repeat them but the tasks we are giving are onerous. The Minister only listed seven of them, but there are many more and I will refer to some of them later. The advantage Kieran had, as well as those who have undertaken his role since then without being appointed to it, is that it cannot be said that any of them is political. One could not do one's job if somebody in that position was partisan.

The problem I have is that a large onus is now being put on the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. I have argued with the Minister, as I argued in the last Dáil, that the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission does not fully reflect the membership of the Dáil or Seanad. It also does not fully reflect the services of the House. I have tabled amendments to deal with this. The staff should be represented, even in an ex officiorole. The political parties should be reflected in the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. For example, my party does not have a representative on the commission, nor does the Technical Group. More than half of the Opposition in the Chamber is not represented on it, so we do not have a role or voice in this matter, in the duties that have been given or in everything else the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission must do.

When I see an appointment that is party political, I am happy to point that out and have done so in the past. Given the role we are discussing, I do not believe that will ever happen again. Ireland has grown up and we will ensure that the holders of the four positions listed in the Bill are reflective of Kieran, that is, proper civil servants who do not reflect their political views, regardless of what they are, in their daily work and the onerous tasks they undertake. They are chief executives or Secretaries General of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission.

It is strange that they can appoint their second in command, the Clerk Assistant. It might be appropriate that this appointment should be through the same process as the process for appointing the Clerk of the Dáil, rather than the Clerk appointing whoever is to replace him or her if they are out sick. The Clerk Assistant's job is take on the full role in the event of the Clerk of the Dáil being indisposed. It is an onerous position.

We have changed the way in which the Houses of the Oireachtas are run.

The experiment of setting up the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission as a separate company with chief executives is working well, albeit that there are major problems associated with the running of the Houses. There are staff and cost issues. We need to get it across to the public that this building or institution costs money, whether they like it or not. If one wishes to have a democracy, one has to invest. One must invest in the best possible equipment required to carry out one's duties. The number of duties has been increasing.

When I first became a Member, most of the mail that came to me was in an envelope. I am not here that long but most of the mail I get now is e-mail. This represents a change. I am thankful that the Houses of the Oireachtas have managed to keep step but sometimes naysayers on the outside say those within are looking after themselves, with new computers or by spending money on Oireachtas TV, for example. I am not one of those who will ever shy away from ensuring the vast majority of the public can gain access to information on what is happening in the Houses as quickly as possible. We should allow as much access as possible, although I sometimes complain about too much public access to Members by the public. One would probably prefer never to see some of the e-mails one gets.

We all have a job. Ultimately, when we enter this Chamber on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and nowadays on Friday, we want it to work well. The person taking this on will be the Clerk of the Dáil. I find it strange that there are other very highly paid personnel in the Houses whose functions I do not fully know to this day. If one were to stick by the list of duties and responsibilities of the Clerk of the Dáil, one would believe they would be out of a job. The Minister turned around and said the duties are to manage and control staff - I believed that was the superintendent's job - in addition to administration, providing advice and managing staff performance and underperformance. I am not taking away from the duties. They reflect how onerous the position is. There is a list of nine key duties, but there are more, including creating opportunities for staff. These duties are onerous, which means the Clerk should have the overall running of this institution in the palm of his or her hand. The Clerk must ensure he or she delivers a functioning Parliament. This is not just an institution; it is a Parliament. We have to have the tools required to deliver the legislation that is required and reflects the issues that arise in modern society, both at home and abroad. Staff should have a comfortable workplace and their hours should not be too onerous. There are occasions when we, as politicians, demand that they be here at the drop of a hat. We might have signed up to that. They might have signed up to it but sometimes I doubt that they understood fully that they had to be here at 12 o'clock at night or whatever. Thus far, I have not heard of major chaos arising but there are problems. I hope problems can be managed through the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission with gusto when the Clerk of the Dáil is appointed. There is a greater demand on us, as I stated.

We need to ensure the process of appointment to the position is as robust as possible. I do not have an alternative to the Ceann Comhairle being the final---

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