Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

We will facilitate the passing of this Bill. The amendments dealt with in the other House clarified any area of difficulty that may have arisen since the publication of the Bill. There was particular concern that the core duties of the commission should not have contained the function of providing a translation service. I welcome the fact that this has been removed from the commission's core duties and included elsewhere in the Bill.

Like my colleague, Senator Mansergh, I am a member of the commission. Since its establishment in 2004, it has gone into new territory by taking on the responsibility of running the Houses of the Oireachtas. It was a daunting task. Most people welcomed it, in so far as the responsibility was removed from the remit of the Minister for Finance, who was requested to provide additional facilities on an ongoing basis. The initial grant of €295 million to run the Houses of the Oireachtas was a generous initial allocation. The commission went about its work with a consciousness of the need for value for money in the areas its dealt with. As a result, the unique position of having an underspend of approximately €10 million was a great achievement.

I endorse the Minister's comments with regard to the secretariat of the commission, the Ceann Comhairle, the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad and all members of the commission on how work was conducted throughout the last three years. If one were to single out one area where there have been notably positive results, it would be the Library and research facilities now available to Members. Staff in that area have done tremendous work. The area is only recently established and the staff have gone about their work in a professional way. Even at this early stage people are happy with the quality of the service. The detail which the researchers provide is fair and balanced. It is neither anti-Government nor anti-Opposition. It is factual across the board, which is very welcome. I hope they continue in that way into the future.

The other area dealt with in the recent past is the translation service. When the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs decided that all items in the Houses must be translated into Irish, he was over-enthusiastic about his own Department. He intended to give the commission the responsibility of translating, thus releasing his Department of the burden. It is a burden. Presumably, he wished to preserve his Department's allocation and use it in his usual fashion at either local or national level, more often the former rather than the latter. His intention was that there would be a translation service and it would be a core function of the commission. I am pleased the Dáil has amended the Bill in that respect. In the coming years the primary legislation will need to be changed in various other ways as we account for the need for change. Many other services were examined. We considered value for money regarding changing the printing facilities, which will be inaugurated from 1 January and which, we are told, will provide better service and greater reliability for the future. The provision of crèche facilities for Members and staff was welcome. That is up and running. We are confident that work can be done on the other issues. Seldom have issues in the commission caused serious division between the members. It was openly stated that seldom are representatives on the commission solely occupied with party political issues. We work in a comprehensive way as a group of people charged with responsibilities and carry them out to the best of our abilities.

The amendments put forward in the other House were largely technical. In a letter to the Ceann Comhairle of 7 December the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen said: "However, I am happy, in any event, to give you and the Commission my assurance as Minister for Finance that if the €393m allocation does over time look likely to be exceeded because of higher translation costs, then I will of course be willing to address the matter." That assurance by the Minister for Finance is welcome and should allay any doubt in people's minds about what is committed to paper and the actual outcome. A firm commitment by the Minister for Finance that he will provide whatever funds are necessary to provide a full translation is welcome. I welcome this Bill and see no difficulty in it, although future commissions will find it necessary to amend the original Bill for other reasons. I look forward to the easy passage of this Bill.