John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I do not have much to say on the Bill but I wholeheartedly welcome the Minister and the officials, as well as the amended Bill. There was a difference of opinion on the original Bill as drawn up but I understand it was ironed out in advance, with different amendments made to the legislation yesterday in the other House.

I wholeheartedly welcome the work of the commission, which has existed for slightly more than two years. We have seen in that period a tremendous improvement in the standard of services provided for Members. When speaking about services provided for Members I am reminded of a man I knew very well before I was a Senator, Mr. Pat Codd.

He was a member of this House in the 1970s and we had expressions of sympathy here for him. I recall discussing with him the facilities operating in the Seanad between 1973 and 1977. He told me that when he came into the Seanad he shared an office with seven or eight other Senators, and there was one telephone. I am not sure if they had even one secretary between the eight in the office. It is fair to say we have come on in leaps and bounds in the years since 1975.

I compliment and support the funding, as allocated by the Department of Finance, for the commission. There is an envelope of funding of more than €390 million which has been earmarked for the commission for the three-year period 2007-09, which gives the commission some degree of certainty about funding in the future. We are not relying on the whims of the Department of Finance or any Minister at a point in time. I welcome the idea that funding will be provided for the commission into the future on that basis.

I welcome the resolution of difficulties surrounding the initial proposed change to the core activities of the commission, which were to be amended to include the translation service. I know the translation service is an important facility and Members of this House, including myself, use it when Senator Ó Murchú or other colleagues make a contribution. I am not as fluent in Irish as I would like to be. The service is convenient and it is very appropriate to have such a facility available almost instantaneously.

It is important that the facility of translating all Acts and Bills discussed in our other national language is available. The commission agreeing to take over the responsibility for the running of the translation service in future is also important.

I welcome the research provision for Members, which was mentioned by Senator White. It is a tremendous facility and although I have not used it as much as Senator White, I have used it on a number of occasions. I would say to any Members who have not used it that it is a great facility. It is important that such a service be available. Members are torn in numerous directions with their duties and it is very difficult to have enough time in the day to do everything. To have the provisions for research, which follows the efforts of the commission, is welcome.

There is still room for significant improvement. Yesterday I listened to some of the debate in the other House and Deputy Cassidy, a former Senator, pointed out a number of inadequacies existing in the facilities available to Members. He singled out colour photocopying, an issue I had not noticed and which may seem trivial. I have a photocopier beside my office but it does not produce colour copies. I am sure the commission will take into account such apparently small considerations in the future in order to further enhance facilities.

I welcome the Bill and Fine Gael will facilitate its passage through the House. I am glad we were able to take it today as it appeared yesterday that an amendment would be made to the Order of Business in order that it would be taken tomorrow.