Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, when he is ready to publish proposals, will do so. He proposes that town districts and borough districts would essentially function as area committees do now but could have the ceremonial functions that previously town councils and borough councils had. This would be a kind of restoration of their ceremonial functions. He is also carrying out a separate piece of work, which is nearing completion, on directly elected mayors for Dublin, Cork and perhaps other counties and the relationship between chief executive officers and county cathaoirligh.

The Ceann Comhairle will be aware that discussions about the lack of progress on legislation are ongoing. There is absolutely a delay in progressing Private Members' Bills. It is not as simple as money messages. We have a difficulty in that there are different standards for the ways in which legislation passes through this House. For Government legislation, in the ordinary course of events, it is necessary to produce the heads and general scheme of a Bill, go to pre-legislative scrutiny, talk to the Attorney General's office and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, publish the legislation, leave a gap for people to consider it and then take the legislation through the Houses. What we allow from Private Members, including those from my own benches as well as those from the Opposition benches, is for legislation to be produced on a Thursday, discussed in the Dáil the following week and passed through Second Stage, and this is not a good way to do legislation. We need a better process to ensure that legislation that comes through from Private Members is of equal quality to that of what is produced by the Government. If we are serious about getting some of these Bills through - and there are some good Bills there - we need to reform our procedures. I know under the Deputy's leadership some good work is taking place in this regard and I hope we can make some progress on that.

I would have to check up on the review Deputy Micheál Martin mentioned. I do not think it has been done but I may be mistaken. In any case, I very much believe in the separation between the Civil Service and politics. It serves us well. This is part of the reason I was so disturbed by Deputy Martin's comments on "The Last Word" last night, on which he alleged that the Government - he said "the Government" - refused to release information under freedom of information, FOI. He said those making the FOI request were first refused and then went to the Information Commissioner. He asked why the Government refused to release the information and what it had to hide. He said it should release all material. I have not been in this House for as long as some Deputies have been, but we all should know how the FOI legislation works. There is a deciding officer in each Department or agency. He or she decides what is and is not released under FOI. It is not permitted for politicians to try to influence or interfere with civil servants when it comes to the FOI Act. That would be a very genuine and legal breach of the separation between civil servants and politicians. I am therefore very confused when I hear allegations thrown at me that I have blurred the line between the Civil Service and politics yet I hear Deputy Martin claiming that an official function is a Government function and suggesting I should somehow interfere with the Civil Service. I will come back again and again to this and the other allegations he has made and seek the evidence for them every time these issues are raised because the double standards in this regard are a matter of concern to me, as are allegations being thrown around without evidence and the real double standard in this regard.

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