Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak on this historic document as a member of the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Dáil Reform. We are here because of the mandate which constituents gave us across the country. Nothing was clear-cut and we had to sit down as politicians and figure out what we were going to do. The fact that we have produced this document in a short timeframe reflects the collegial nature of the committee and the fact that it was seen as an opportunity for us to sit down, talk to each other and consider the submissions. Every Deputy had an opportunity to make a submission on it. We even received submissions from external people. There are many opportunities for people to have their say.

I note the collegial nature of the committee. Leaving the heat of the television cameras out of it showed that when politicians sit down and talk to each other seriously and with good intentions, they can reach a consensus on certain topics. The document we have produced reflects this. I pay tribute to the Ceann Comhairle for his excellent chairing of the committee and to the staff who were involved in helping distil all the ideas and find research for us in such a prompt and professional fashion. Without them, we could not have done it. I pay tribute to all the members of the committee, particularly my colleagues who were appointed by the Taoiseach, the Minister of State, Deputy Regina Doherty, and Deputies Eoghan Murphy and David Stanton, all of whom are passionate about Dáil reform and making the Chamber much more efficient and meaningful for the people participating.

The fact that we will be on the clock a little more is a good thing. As a member of the panel of Acting Chairmen, I have seen the frustration on the part of Deputies who were sharing time or who came to the end of a slot to discover that the time had run out because those ahead of them had deprived them of the opportunity and democratic right to speak here because they did not observe the clock.

If we are sincere about what we want to do in this new landscape of politics, we will have to have more respect for each other, less grandstanding and be conscious that if a Member is eroding speaking time he or she is depriving another public representative, who is as entitled to speak as that Member, of the opportunity to have his or her say.

I am glad we are building on the work the previous Government did on political reform and, for example, on the process of pre-legislative scrutiny which was introduced. I participated in that on a number of committees and found it very helpful. I believe it influenced the outcome of the Bills subsequently produced. The fact that we will now introduce post-legislative scrutiny, which is an issue all of us felt strongly about, will make being a member of a committee even more meaningful. It will be a good opportunity for Members of the House who have ideas on legislation to go to the parliamentary legal office to get their heads of a Bill referred to committees and thereby participate in meaningful engagement. That is the reason we are here. Nobody has a monopoly on ideas. Excellent ideas can come from all sides of the House, and that is what we would like to see happen. The proposal to enhance the parliamentary legal office is excellent because none of us realised that the budget allocated for that office each year was not spent.

The other excellent initiative the previous Ceann Comhairle took was to make this Parliament more accessible to the people. If they cannot come into the Visitors Gallery, how can they participate? Previously, they might have had to read transcripts of proceedings or whatever but we now have a dedicated Oireachtas television channel, which is excellent. We also have a dedicated website on which all the legislative programmes can be seen. People can listen live to debates and the fact that we have an Oireachtas app is also excellent. As a Member I find it very useful to check the business that is planned for the coming week.

The business committee proposed in the report, which will reflect the make-up of the Dáil, will put power back into the hands of the Members as they will be able to make decisions around scheduling of business and so on. With regard to the new proposed layout of the Dáil week, luckily I do not have small children but I know colleagues who do and trying to work towards a family friendly situation has been challenging. I agree with the collective voting proposal for Thursdays. I recall Deputies in the previous Administration who felt that if they could have gone home an hour earlier they might have been able to put their child to bed rather than having to wait for a vote that would be called later in the House. I am reflecting on Members who are within driving distance of Dublin. It clearly will not suit all Members but it is a step in the right direction.

As a chair of a committee in the previous Dáil, one of the frustrations I experienced was that members of the committee could be called to a Dáil vote in the middle of committee proceedings. This was most frustrating, especially on occasions when we had invited guests before the committee who were helping us with pre-legislative scrutiny. The Seanad members would have remained at the committee while we had to leave to go to the Dáil for a vote. It was very frustrating. The scheduling of two separate morning sittings dedicated to committee business only will be beneficial to all Members, not only in the efficient management of Dáil business but it will give Members an opportunity to focus and concentrate on the legislation they will be working on. The fact that we have narrowed down the numbers is a good idea. It will give Members an opportunity to become more expert on their areas of interest. I hope that is acceptable and that it will work.

The proposed establishment of a budgetary oversight committee and the dedicated independent parliamentary budget office is a step in the right direction. I imagine it will particularly work in the favour of the Opposition Members. It is something they have wanted for a long time. Previously they had to extract information from parliamentary questions and elsewhere. If they have good ideas they can be professionally assisted in costing their ideas. Nobody has a monopoly ideas but I believe it will be an office that will work very well.

Our relationship with State bodies is challenging. As a public representative, I can vouch for the frustration I have experienced when I have got a reply to a parliamentary question from a Minister to the effect that he or she will have to refer this matter to a specific State agency and hopefully it will report back to me in 14 days or so. I found with some officials there was a sense of detachment. When we did some research on this area we discovered that very few State agencies have an Oireachtas helpline, a dedicated line on which Members could raise queries with them. The State bodies will have to adjust to the change. I remember the frustration I felt when I sought a meeting with a person in a State agency, whom I shall not name, and that person refused to meet me. I am a public representative democratically elected and for somebody in a State agency to refuse to meet me is undemocratic. It is a denial of a service for people who asked me to find out something for them when that State agency had the answer and refused to meet me to talk about the matter. That is highly unacceptable. It is the type of issue on which all members of the committee were united. We all had experienced such frustration. If we can put something constructive and positive in place, that should help in that respect.

While there is a great deal I could speak about in the draft report, an important provision is that the Sub-Committee on Dáil Reform will remain in place. Even as we were signing off on this document, many of us were coming up with further topics that we would like to have discussed. This debate provides an opportunity for us to hear the view of other Members. They may come up with ideas we did not consider. We tried to cover as much as we could but we will have an opportunity to revisit issues when hopefully we will get consensus on this draft report next week. We can then consider other topics that were submitted by some of the members of the sub-committee that they would like to discuss further down the line. That is well worth doing. It was very much a collegial committee. The fact that we worked so well together and obtained consensus is something about which everybody can be justifiably proud. I hope that the Members of the Dáil recognise genuine efforts were put in by the members of the sub-committee. There was no attempt to exclude or not take into account the views of the members who had submitted their ideas and who will be contributing to the debate today. We will take all those contributions on board. We will meet next week and if there are amendments to this draft document they will be made and hopefully that will mean we will be able to move forward with it.

A proposal that is worth considering, which would form part of the next discussion of the sub-committee, relates to the Constitutional Convention we had and how that worked very well in dealing with specific items in the Constitution. Other civil society groups are coming up with different ideas and they would like to have a similar process to tease out specific topics. For example, a group of academics are seeking a forum on climate change and it is a question of deciding how that could be put in place. Their concern is to get the engagement of all our politicians and citizens. We are the citizens' assembly in this House. Setting up a forum that is called a citizens assembly might not be acceptable but it could be called something else.

The aim would be the same - to engage with our people and politicians in a meaningful way. Of course, we have to start thinking long-term. Dáil cycles are short, but something like climate change is an issue about which we all need to talk. It will impact on every one of us and future generations. Having some assembly, whatever it might be called, is something at which we have to look. It is something at which the next sub-committee will look.

I hope Members are happy with this report. The Irish language was discussed in detail. Those of us who are not fluent are still anxious that an Irish language committee be established and it is included as a recommendation, which is very welcome.

On the grouping system, I hope Independent members of the Opposition will be happy that we have attempted to give them the speaking time to which they are entitled as democratically elected Members of the Dáil. It was frustrating for a lot of them to find they could not get much speaking time. I know that it is not of much comfort to them, but I did not get much time either as a backbencher in a Government party whereas Ministers got a lot. I understood completely from where they were coming and hope they are happy with the suggestion we have made of reducing the number required to form a group to give them the speaking time to which they are entitled as Members of the Dáil and messengers of the people, as we all are. I hope it reflects the make-up of this new Chamber. I hope the Dáil Members who were not on the sub-committee are happy with what we have done and that we can adopt it next week and move on with all of the excellent ideas in a more collegiate manner. I hope there will be less fire here and more consideration for each other because that is was the electorate expects of us.

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