Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

I thank the Senator.

It did not take me long to notice that most of us have to cope with working long hours here during the legislative and committee sessions and with the insistent demands, in all seasons and on all days, of supporters and organisations, locally and nationally. Neither I nor the Minister for Finance ever held out the promise that if this Bill is enacted, the everyday struggle to fit all these tasks into limited time would suddenly disappear. However, what we can say is that if it is enacted, and if the changes it offers and the new institution it creates work well, it should make the work of Members more effective and possibly easier in the long term.

All Bills accumulate sections and subsections to deal with bits and pieces that might arise in the future or which are needed to fill out details. That is probably the case here. However, the Bill contains two central pillars around which almost everything else revolves. These are what might be called "a lump of money" and a new institution called the "Houses of the Oireachtas Commission", which will manage that money and run the administrative machine that supports the two Houses and their committees. I propose to deal in detail with each of these.