Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have never been so happy that my name begins with a "D". I am a member of the committee and it is a pleasure to sit around the table with people from all parties and none and to be able to agree on something in a relatively short period. We have only had three meetings. I pay tribute to the work achieved so far and the interim report before the House today. I need not go into the details of it because everybody can read it.

I am lucky to be back in the Chamber for a second time after my first term over the last five years, and I am grateful for it. A great deal of politics is played in this Chamber but there is not a great deal of policy on an average day. To change the culture through the changes we are proposing is probably the most important thing we can do. The reason we are changing groups, and acknowledging and accepting that there are more types of organisations, parties and groups in the House, is to empower them to be representatives and to be equal in their mandate to every other Member of the House. When looking around the House I fear that there are some people who think they are more equal than everybody else. That must change. Every Member of the House, be they from a big or small party, an independent or from an alliance, has the same mandate as everybody else and should be empowered to be as fully representative on behalf of the people as they can be. I welcome the changes we are proposing and I appreciate everybody's input to them.

I wish to refer to two matters which are very significant in the changes we will make. One is the change to our committee structures, although I acknowledge it is not in today's report. I was a member of the health and children committee for the last five years.

I did not realise there were 24 members because only the same six or seven people came, week in, week out, and they were very interested in pursuing in an non-partisan way the agenda of the committee. It was a real pleasure to be part of it. To be a member of a committee should be seen as a privilege. The authority and work of that committee should be elevated and we should try to give it more powers than it had in the past.

From a backbench perspective or an Opposition perspective, the opportunity to put forward legislation as proposed in the amendments to Standing Orders is very important. While we had this before, as speakers rightly said, the legislation never really went anywhere without the blessing of a Minister. It has been very frustrating as a backbencher for the past number of years to have ideas and amendments to put forward on legislation but not be allowed to put them forward, or if Members were allowed to put them forward, they would not have been allowed to vote on them if it was not something their party agreed with. The purpose of each of us in the House, with our individual mandates, is to make law the best it can be. It is not in the gift of a particular Minister to make something perfect at the beginning of a process. Every Member's views, opinions and amendments should be taken on board, and that can and will happen with the changes we are going to make to Standing Orders, which I very much welcome.

The process has started and it is a pleasure to be part of it. I very much look forward to the changes, in particular the change of culture that will arise from the changes in the next couple of weeks.

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