Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If the Government does not want the political odium of opposing it outright, it is not an appropriate way of dealing with it, to send this Bill, as seems to be the intention, into the new limbo we have created in this Dáil. We have created a state of non-existence for Bills that require a money message. This is new politics. My colleague, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan talked about 140 Bills but I think it is closer to 200 Bills from this House alone now in that state of no grace that awaits in the pretence that new politics advances things. As I raised in the House with the Minister for Justice and Equality last week, resolutions of this House, formal decisions of this our national parliament are increasingly being treated like formal decisions of the local debating society in a third level institution. That is very dangerous for our democracy. It is undermining, and cannot be sustained.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, who sits close by me said that in the beginning there was a degree of real concern at Cabinet that resolutions would be passed by the Dáil and the Government would be defeated but now it happens three times a week and it is a matter of indifference. That is not the way Parliament should work. We have to address this issue collectively because if it goes on that resolutions of the House or Bills passed on Second Stage are simply put on a shelf to die of old age and neglect, we undermine our democracy. I ask people to reflect on that point.

I was concerned too by the view expressed obliquely enough by the Minister of State, his curious concern about the role of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, which would have fairly universal support and admiration around this House. He was concerned that we were giving it a "quasi-legislative power". It is simply to ask it to do up a scheme for reporting, authorised by legislation of these Houses. We often devolve authority to agencies of State, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to bring in regulations to monitor environmental matters.

Somebody crafted that speech, perhaps even the Minister of State himself. It underlines a worrying attitude within the Department to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and I will certainly be more alert to that in future. I have underlined for my own benefit the concerns expressed by the Minister of State in his speech but I will not rehash them in the three minutes I have left. However, the Minister of State knows well that all of them can be addressed on Committee Stage if he wants to do so. The Bill has passed through one House of the Oireachtas and it can pass Second Stage in the Dáil this week. As such, there are only a couple of hurdles left. We could go through Committee and Remaining Stage this side of Christmas if the Minister of State really wanted to solve this issue and address pay inequality. The Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, came to the House to say his preference was to advance a Government Bill, but no such Bill exists. Rather, there are heads of a Bill which have been sent by Government to a joint committee for pre-legislative scrutiny. The clue is in the term "pre-legislative". It does not exist as a Bill yet. No matter what happens, that is a year away.

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