Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

The phrase "Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas" is a bit of a mouthful for ordinary conversation, but what it describes in practice is the administrative and support machine that provides the back-up of essential services to serve and sustain these Houses and their Members in discharging their public functions here.

The essence of the Bill is that it provides for the Houses of the Oireachtas to be headed up by a commission composed, with the exception of the Secretary General, of Members of the Dáil and the Seanad, endowing them with an enhanced version of the powers vested in Ministers who have charge of Departments. More fundamentally, it provides the commission with the financial resources – a figure of €295 million is specified in the Bill – to run that office and the financial affairs of the Houses for some years without having to approach the Minister for Finance or the Government. The Bill also provides for the financial process which keeps that machine oiled and which generates the various services utilised by Members.

I will deal with the money first. At present, the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas is financed in the same way as any Government office. An allocation is proposed by the management here, argued about with officials of the Department of Finance and probably discussed by the Minister with the Ceann Comhairle and possibly with some other Members. Eventually, a figure emerges from Government, is included in the Book of Estimates and ultimately voted on, like every other Estimate, in the Dáil. This details the current expenditure of the office and the services it operates for a calendar year. Actual spending of that money requires sanction from the Minister for Finance or, in practice, his Department, either on a case-by-case basis or in accordance with spending powers which have been delegated to the office. If an overspend is threatened during the year, expenditure has to be cut back or a Supplementary Estimate has to be negotiated with the Minister and this requires going through the process again.

The Bill introduces a new arrangement whereby a sum of €295 million will be provided to meet the current expenditure for three years. This will not be voted annually, as is the case at present, but can be drawn down from the central fund, as required, over the three years from 1 January 2004. Virtually all the controls that are now exercised by the Minister for Finance will cease to exist and the commission will decide how and when the cash is to be spent.