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

Cosúil leis na Teachtaí eile, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an gCeann Comhairle as an obair a dhein sé muid a tharraingt le chéile chun déileáil le ceist atá teibí do chuid mhór daoine. Uaireanta ní thuigeann siad go díreach cad atá ar bun againn san áit seo. Déileáil an coiste go maith leis an gceist agus d'éirigh linn teacht ar sraith rialacha nua a chuideoidh linn an gnó atá le déanamh againn san áit seo a dhéanamh amach anseo. I hope that I contributed positively in my work with the committee on Dáil reform. I undertook the work diligently, put forward my own proposals and I listened to the proposals of others. The benefit of the committee was that people brought their practical experience of the House and those who were new to the House brought ideas. Some of us were able to tease the ideas out and show if they could work or not. Any change to the rules in this institution has consequences that are often unforeseen. The committee has managed to put together the first raft, hopefully, of changes which will benefit not only Members but also the public who will receive a more effective and efficient Dáil. Ba mhaith liom déileáil leis an gceist maidir leis an Ghaeilge sa Dáil amach anseo. Tá súil agam go gcomhlíonfar na moltaí atá déanta againn agus go bhfeicfimid níos mó reachtaíochta agus meamraim míniúcháin as Gaeilge ag teacht os ár gcomhair. Tá moladh déanta againn freisin go mbeidh coiste ann le déileáil leis an Ghaeilge agus is céim mhór chun tosaigh í sin. There are many issues that remain to be addressed and the commitment by the Ceann Comhairle that this is not the end of Dáil reform will hopefully be lived up to.

I have been here long enough to hear of previous commitments, but I believe an Ceann Comhairle when he says that we will come back to some of the issues, because they are consequential on some of the changes. We are all eager to ensure what we have changed will work.

I believe that in some instances there will be practical problems. For instance, the proposal for promised legislation allows for 15 minutes' discussion. If we take it that the Minister and a leader between them have two minutes and there are now eight groups, 16 minutes are already gone, meaning other Deputies will not get to speak on promised legislation on Wednesdays or Thursdays were all the leaders to take their slots. That is a practical problem but there are solutions and we will examine the issue again. Other practical problems have also emerged.

I express my support for the amendment but if we accept Deputy Daly's amendment, other consequential changes need to be made. These changes relate to how political parties are registered, how a leader's allowance travels, whether he or she is in a political party and leaves or he or she joins a political party, the allocation of secretarial assistants and the allocation of committee chairs. If we accept this change, and I hope we accept it, these are all consequential steps to be taken to put in place a more robust recognition process which deals with political parties and the questions I raised. Further, we cannot have a situation where people are jumping in and out of parties. There needs to be a cooling down period. We need to get to grips with this quickly, because the public have told us who are in, if one wants, established political parties that there needs to be a change. They voted for small parties, big parties and also quite a number of Independents. Some of those Independents over time will join other parties or will stay independent. However, there are consequences and we should not put in place rules that restrict them or discriminate against them.

Gabhaim mo bhuíochas arís leo siúd a d'oibrigh liom ar an gcoiste, ach go háirithe an Ceann Comhairle as an obair a dhein sé. Tá súil agam go mbeidh tairbhe le baint againn as amach anseo.

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