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

I welcome the progress that has been made under the chairmanship of the Ceann Comhairle towards developing a substantive package of Dáil reforms. This effort remains in its early stages and I hope it will be possible for agreement to be reached on the remaining points on the agenda. The starting point for Dáil reform has to be that this becomes a Parliament in which every Member can make a contribution and, equally, in which every Member accepts his or her responsibility to propose credible long-term solutions for issues of concern to the Irish people.

As the banking inquiry showed, many of the core failings that led to the worst financial and fiscal crisis in our history were ignored by the Oireachtas in the years before the recession. A different approach to speaking time and the answering of questions would have done nothing to set a different course for public policy. Holding the Government to account is an essential role for us to play, but it is not the only role. We need to break with the idea that the Government must be the driving force behind all policy and all that is left for others is to oversee and challenge its work. We need a more dynamic Parliament that is more independent but also more expert. Real reform is not a question of creating more space for speeches. It is a question of creating more space for serious engagement with issues. Fianna Fáil supports the idea that we must have mechanisms whereby all Deputies have a realistic opportunity to contribute to the full range of the work of Dáil Éireann. The ability to participate in committee work and to speak in the Chamber should apply to all. Equally, we must avoid a situation in which there is no respect for the larger and national mandate that parties earn.

I welcome the work the committee is undertaking in finding a fair balance. The establishment of a business committee is something that Fianna Fáil proposed three years ago and that we welcome today. It is an important step towards ensuring that legislation receives adequate attention and that we avoid the overwhelming control of our agenda that has been seen in recent years. An important and consistent part of the reforms being proposed is that the Ceann Comhairle must oversee and decide many more difficult matters. We support this and see it as a logical extension of the de factonomination of the Ceann Comhairle by the Taoiseach of the day. We must, however, all be clear that these reforms will not work if Deputies routinely attack the Ceann Comhairle and seek to grandstand every time they do not get their own way. Parties and Deputies will regularly disagree with the schedule. If every time this happens they question the good faith of the Chair, there will be no progress.

We welcome the proposal to allow the Ceann Comhairle to rule on whether a question has been answered. This is of course very different from saying that the Chair can oblige a Minister to answer to the satisfaction of a Deputy, something that does not happen in any Parliament in the world. This is a major reform and we hope that this new discretion signals a departure from the practice that has developed in recent years of Ministers rejecting and transferring questions without justification.

Potentially the most radical and significant work of the committee will be its decisions on proposals concerning the scheduling of legislation and the budget process. As the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, has pointed out, our budget process is almost designed to maximise conflict and minimise oversight of new policy. Last year we gathered for a Spring Economic Statement which was intended to set out the parameters for the budget to come. It did nothing of the sort. Instead, there was a massive end-of-year rush to fix the figures to fit electoral needs, something which was confirmed yesterday by the acting Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, James Reilly. The reformed budget process has to ensure that discussions of macro policy and Department-level initiatives are separated and that the traditional budget day festival of surprises and spin is ended.

The same applies to the scheduling of legislation. No functioning parliament allows unlimited debate on every issue. Equally, no functioning parliament allows a government the right to manipulate and control everything about the scheduling of legislation. It should be said that there is literally no chance of these reforms working unless additional resources are made available to establish an independent budget office and to resource the Ceann Comhairle’s new roles. In the election Fianna Fáil recognised this by providing for the cost of Dáil reform in its proposals. We believe that a resolution to fund the implementation of additional measures should be introduced at the same time as the adoption of the final package of measures later this month. A good start has been made and we look forward to the completion of the work in the weeks to come.

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