Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his opening remarks. Those of us on the housing committee take our legislative responsibilities seriously. As the Minister of State knows, Sinn Féin supports the holding of plebiscites. I acknowledge the fact that on Second Stage the Minister of State indicated that he would bring forward these proposals. The problem is that we have been given five pages of amendments which essentially are a new Bill 48 hours before the committee will have a chance to discuss and vote on them. That means that we have had no Second Stage debate on the substance of what is separate legislation. Neither have we engaged in any pre-legislative scrutiny.

Before we received the amendments, in the Irish Examineryesterday Daniel McConnell had a story based on a leaked memo from the Cabinet in which the Attorney General expressed serious concern about them, allegedly on the grounds that it was not clear what the decision-making powers of the new mayors would be or what their relationship with existing councillors would be. The same Cabinet memo highlights criticisms from the Minister for Finance who stated there were no costings associated with the amendments. That is not intended as a criticism of the officials, but when Ministers put pressure on officials to produce complex legislation within short timelines, unfortunately, mistakes are made, as we have seen happen in the case of other legislation recently. I am concerned that we are not being given sufficient time, particularly those of us who are new Members, to deal with these technical amendments.

I was previously a member of the Dublin elected mayors forum when the four Dublin local authorities examined the issue of a directly elected mayor for Dublin. Some of the key issues centred on the powers and structures such a mayor would have, as well as costs. Would powers be lost from local authorities as they devolved upwards? Would powers be given to local government as they were devolved downwards from Government agencies? From what I understand in talking to the Minister of State before today, there will be more legislation. In some senses, we will be asked to take some important decisions at the committee tomorrow without having full information. As Deputy Ó Laoghaire said, we do not want to delay the substantive legislation tomorrow. Members of the housing committee, whose job it is to scrutinise the Bill, will need a detailed briefing from departmental officials in advance of the committee session tomorrow which will allow us to tease it out. It could be done in half an hour or 45 minutes and would allow us to go through all of the issues properly and would at least give us the benefit on Committee Stage of being able to debate and take decisions on them. If the Minister of State gives us a commitment that we will at least have that additional preparation, we will certainly not stand in the way of the motion.

This is not to be partisan about the issues. While we can have our political and policy arguments, it is our job at the committee to ensure the legislation will be right. We take our scrutinising responsibilities seriously. Producing substantial legislation at such short notice is not good practice. I hope that when the Minister of State comes back next year with the next local government Bill and the substantive issues surrounding the powers of directly elected mayors, the costs and the relationship they will have with existing local authorities, we will not be in a similar position where, to meet a tight deadline, detailed amendments will be dropped in on Committee and Report Stages. If the Minister of State is willing to give us that commitment, that we will receive a detailed briefing at some point tomorrow afternoon, we will certainly not stand in the way of the motion.

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