Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh. In the words of David Hanley on "Morning Ireland" many years ago, I must ask if the Minister of State is serious about signing in. What have we come to? While this legislation is necessary and we must take a principled stand, it is also important to ask the serious questions and be practical about this matter. For example, are we now going to sign in to public meetings? My constituency is over 120 miles long, from Cork airport almost to Kenmare, taking in the Beara peninsula, the Mizen peninsula, and the harbours at Kinsale, Clonakilty, Baltimore and Courtmacsherry. There are three electoral areas. As a successful constituency politician himself, the Minister of State will be aware of the importance of attending events and being seen where the crowds are. The perception and optics of a public representative include being seen in different places to meet constituents and support events. Will we have to sign in for attending festivals, regattas, tidy town competitions, public meetings and ribbon-opening ceremonies? Will we have to provide proof of attending funerals to the Minister of State? Will we sign in when we meet planners or when we visit a site? Will we sign in when we attend a local authority meeting to listen to a report to councillors? We are no longer councillors; that was the first sacrifice we made by virtue of the Minister, Deputy Martin Cullen's, legislative vendetta against local authorities. It was also inherently anti-rural Ireland because he abolished the first-time buyer's grant. He is now running off with the proceeds of the national lottery contribution to his Department because he has abandoned the sports capital programme for this year.

We will now have to go to local authority meetings to pick up that information. With all due respect, no matter how good one's replacement or surrogate is, one will still have to attend a certain number of local authority meetings, but will we have to sign in for those? A constituent may call after 10 p.m. to raise a housing, planning or roads issue, or about an elderly relative who cannot get a bed in a community hospital, or the loss of a medical card, or about a couple who cannot get grant assistance for a child who is starting third level education, and third level fees are going to be reintroduced. Will we have to log that phone call and bring it back to the House and say that is what we were doing at 10.30 p.m. on a Sunday? Are we going mad?

I just came from an Oireachtas committee that dealt with over-regulation of the shell fishing industry, but this Bill concerns the over-regulation of politicians. Are we to be fingerprinted when we come into Leinster House so that we can draw expenses? We must not forget the add-ons in the public service, as well as the vulgar filth that took place in FÁS, and the illegal practices in banks. Did they have to sign in? No they did not. They left their jobs, took their large pensions and lump sums and sat down. They never once had to knock on a door to offer accountability. They had contempt for parliamentary democracy by refusing to come before an Oireachtas committee to explain their actions. They do not have to sign in, but we must do so. It has become ridiculous.

I wish to ask about the meeting last Friday between the Minister for Finance and the backbench Fianna Fáil TDs. Who organised it?