Results 21-40 of 6,407 for speaker:Emmet Stagg

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: There is much more in that report. I inform the Minister of State that she had absolutely nothing to do with introducing Leaders' Questions. That was done by the present Leas-Cheann Comhairle when he was Ceann Comhairle. He introduced the system in the House, independent of Government.

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: That is where that came from. The Minister of State is taking credit where it is not due and pinching other people's ideas, pretending they are hers and doing nothing about implementing them. She creates confrontation in this debate and there is no need for it, no more than at the Whips' meetings every week. There is no chance of getting the agreement that is necessary from all sides of the...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: I rise this evening in support of the motion submitted on behalf of Fine Gael. Speaking on behalf of a party whose constant theme has been the necessity to secure the accountability of Government in this House and its Members, I welcome any proposal, however modest in its terms, to advance that cause. Specifically, Standing Order 26 provides that the Taoiseach, a member of the Government or...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: There may well be sound reasons a Taoiseach would feel the need to take new and urgent business on a Thursday but, as matters stand, he cannot do so.

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: That is not a point of order.

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: As a matter of principle, the Taoiseach should take the Order of Business and respond to Leaders' Questions on every sitting day on which he is available. Of course, there will be times when he is away on official business. There must be reasonable provision for substitutions, but there should not be automatic provision that he need not turn up on a fixed day of every week. As Leader of the...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: There is, of course, as the Fine Gael motion recognises, no necessary connection between those two provisions. A group made up of representatives of three parties and others should not be given precedence over a single party that is larger than any one of those three smaller parties. However, that issue has nothing whatsoever to do with the question of the Taoiseach taking answers in this...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: I have described this evening's motion proposing amendments to these Standing Orders as modest. That is not to detract from their legitimacy, rather it is to emphasise the scale of the task facing this House when it confronts the need radically to reform the way we do our business. The Labour Party published a comprehensive policy document in October of last year. I know that Fine Gael and...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: As I hope it is clear to anyone who has read the Labour Party document, we have put much research and work into it. It has been in preparation for several months. However, it was published against the background of an outpouring of criticism of the political system, to a considerable extent sparked off by the decision of the Government to close down a week's plenary session in the Dáil, for...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: Declining participation in election after election is a dangerous and unwelcome trend in any democracy. The performance is not simply confined to issues of efficiency or our ability in this House, under our present outdated rules, to do the job for which we are elected. Far more dangerously, we are faced with repeated allegations of sleaze, fixing, back-handers, preferential access and the...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: That is the reason we have committed ourselves to the most fundamental set of reforms, not only of the operations of the Dáil, but of all the mechanisms and instruments of accountability ever proposed. It is also the reason we are actively pursuing that agenda with Fine Gael and the Greens. We will campaign for these changes in Opposition. We will work with other parties to agree and secure...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: Among the measures we propose is a complete redrafting of Dáil Standing Orders. We want to see a specific obligation on the Office of Ceann Comhairle to ensure that the interests of Members and the public interest are fully protected. We want a specific obligation on Ministers to ensure questions are fully and properly answered, including an obligation to provide redress or correction if the...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: We propose new measures to allow discussion of genuinely urgent matters, especially those of wider public interest. We advocate reform of the rules covering the passage of legislation to ensure that all matters covered by Bills are fully debated, including limits on the use of guillotine motions.

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: We want changes to the rules of debate to allow far more interchange between Members and to make it obligatory on Members, including Ministers, to yield to reasonable interventions and questions from the floor. We propose a major programme of legislative and administrative reform to ensure greater accountability in Government and throughout the system of public administration. We will restore...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: We will introduce protection for whistleblowers and repeal unnecessary provisions of the Official Secrets Act.

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: We will severely limit political donations and spending in elections and will regulate lobbying. We will restrict the right of civil servants, including political appointees, to take up positions in the private sector that might give rise to a conflict of interest. We will require heads of Bills to be published and debated in advance of final decisions taken on their structure and content. We...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: As a result of recent Supreme Court judgments arising from the Abbeylara case and the knock-on effects of those judgments for the mini-CTC inquiry, it is clear that if parliamentary inquiries are to be effective, constitutional change is probably necessary. We therefore propose a constitutional amendment to allow the Dáil to inquire into and report on any exercise of the executive power of...

Standing Orders: Motion. (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: ——and with public administration generally; to arrange investigation of issues of urgent public importance which demand detailed and thorough investigation of the sort normally dealt with by a tribunal; and to supervise an office of parliamentary investigator. The proposed office of parliamentary investigator would be designed to ensure timely and cost-effective investigation of issues...

Written Answers — Departmental Restructuring: Departmental Restructuring (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: Question 134: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if her attention has been drawn to the proposals produced by the Amicus-MSF trade union for a restructuring of her Department, which would include the creation of a separate department of labour; her views on the proposals made; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3804/04]

Written Answers — Legislative Programme: Legislative Programme (10 Feb 2004)

Emmet Stagg: Question 147: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when she intends to bring forward the promised amendments to legislation to provide for increased penalties for breaches of industrial relations law, and especially for breaching the terms of registered building agreements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3805/04]