Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I again thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh for bringing this matter to the Dáil. I acknowledge, as Deputy Nash did, the range of contributions from across the House. We heard different but valuable perspectives, all of which pointed to the importance, significance and worthwhile nature of the proposal before us.

Across the Oireachtas, we all come from different political backgrounds and have our own views. However, by and large, everybody in this House has a common belief in leaving the country better off for future generations. In debating, developing and implementing policy and in how we approach our work as legislators, that has to be a central consideration. As Minister for children and youth, it is something of which I am always conscious. That is why I am proud that Ireland is a world leader in enabling youth participation and involving young people in policymaking, as I described earlier.

Some of the contributors in the Chamber spoke about the short-term nature of the electoral cycle here in Ireland and how decisions are too often framed around the four or five years of a programme for Government. There was also a criticism that an office or role such as that proposed by the Bill should not be necessary. Is it a failure of politics that we work in a cycle? Potentially, it is. It is certainly a symptom of politics, and has been for as long as people have been coming together and voting to decide on a leader. That symptom, with all its challenges, can be mitigated. That is why we put other institutions into our democratic structure. While this is the pre-eminent democratic structure, we put in place other institutions. We have put in place a range of ombudsmen offices, including the Ombudsman and the children's ombudsman, which provides important advice to me as Minister and puts real pressure on me and my Department to think of the things the political cycle does not pick up as quickly as it should. We also have a Garda ombudsman and a financial services ombudsman. We see the value in a role that is outside the political cycle and which has the capacity to influence, highlight and draw attention to key issues. That is why I particularly like the approach that Deputy Ó Cathasaigh has taken today. He is not being absolutely prescriptive in terms of what this office should look like. He is creating a commission for which he has a vision, and which includes an ombudsman, but he is not creating that role. He is creating a group that will look to see whether the best structure will include an ombudsman. Perhaps something else will be involved. Perhaps it will involve an Oireachtas committee and perhaps it will not. The Bill is open-ended in terms of the final result but it is recognising the cyclical nature of politics here, elsewhere and, in fact, everywhere, does not allow enough for the long-term thinking required to address the needs of future people and to take their importance into account. Those are things that do not happen enough although we try. All of us can cite examples where we did it well and are proud of what we have done. Many of us have achieved some element of future thinking but it is about doing that in a co-ordinated way across all decisions. That is where the real challenge is because there are areas where it is easy or doable to look to the future but there are also areas where, politically, making those long-term decisions is hard. That is why having an office to draw our attention, as a polity, to the need to do that is hugely valuable. This proposal has real merit and as I said in my earlier contribution, I look forward to working with Deputy Ó Cathasaigh as we bring this Bill through the legislative process.

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