Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Pringle for sharing the time available. I welcome the interim report and the frank, open and positive tone that clearly was in the committee because it is being reflected in the contributions of members of the committee here as well as those of us who are responding briefly to their work. I thank them for their generous efforts. It is a great lesson to listen to this debate as I, a new Deputy, move from the experience of what probably was a more reflective Chamber to this one.

It is critical that we move towards the strong Dáil about which Deputy Murphy spoke. I am happy to have had the opportunity to make a submission to the committee and one of the suggestions I put forward has been taken on board in its interim report. The committee has acknowledged the increased role an Opposition can play in the Thirty-second Dáil. That is absolutely essential if the Dáil is to represent the views of the people accurately. That has not always been the case given much of the power in the last Dáil was centralised among a small group of decision-makers and we have heard other Deputies reflect on that matter.

The proposal to allow abstaining as a voting option is welcome. This may be an acknowledgement of the possibility of a minority Government and that abstaining will not be seen as an act of not engaging with the legislative process but, instead, as an action of itself. Abstaining on key votes could soon be an act that must be carried out by Members of the Opposition, be they members of political parties or Independents. I also welcome the suggestion for the opportunity to explain those abstentions. I also look forward to future recommendations of the committee, in particular recommendations relating to financial security in the budget process. We need to empower fully all Members of the Parliament to take a meaningful role in the budgeting process and for it to be one that gives us an opportunity to work towards counteracting recent regressive budgets and austerity cuts. I would bring an equality and anti-poverty lens to my analysis of the budgets and the use of an independent analysis to support these.

I hope the appetite for reform shown in the Dáil today, about which other Deputies have also spoken, can be reflected in an appetite for real and genuine reform in the Seanad.

I firmly believe the will of the people ought to be implemented with one person, one vote for the Seanad. I am hopeful that can be achieved, especially given that many of the current candidates in the Seanad election are running on a platform for reform. Deputy Murphy and others have referred to the issue of prayer in the Dáil. We reformed that in the Seanad. There was much debate on the issue to ensure it would reflect a more modern Chamber. Ultimately, our compromise was one minute of silence with one minute of a Christian prayer. The Dáil could go further than that in its efforts to reform, perhaps with a couple of minutes of silence so everybody has an opportunity to draw on their ethical source or their spiritual sense of being part of the wider community as we begin to debate in the House.

To conclude, as many Deputies have said there is clearly a need to move beyond the adversarial nature of the Chamber. I am delighted I had the opportunity to participate in this and to spend time here because there is a contrast between what is taking place now with what took place earlier in the day. As both an optimist and a realist, I acknowledge that political reform is an ongoing process and that the Oireachtas has much to fix. However, I believe there is a renewed appetite. There have been many calls for new politics since the election but it will only be new politics if it translates into new results. I look forward to the ongoing reports from this apparently very productive committee.

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