Michael McCarthy (Labour)

What was discussed? What role does the Oireachtas Commission have concerning this? The Minister for Finance took his PR battle against Members' conditions, allowances or expenses to the front page of The Irish Times at the start of this year. After leaving a meeting with the Oireachtas Commission and making an agreement, he ran off to that newspaper to make a front-page statement. He was the reforming Minister who was going to clean up Dodge City, but what role does the Oireachtas Commission have in this matter? My understanding is that the commission was dealing with these issues. There are representatives from each party in this House, and none, to deal with those issues. What input did the Oireachtas Commission have concerning this legislation? What was the background to the meeting last Friday? Can we expect the Oireachtas Commission to be on the hit-list of an bord snip nua? I am perplexed that when so many people are on the live register, the Government is obsessed with cutting expenditure and protecting banks. It is doing so to the detriment of other sectors. There is no absolute strategy or clearly managed vision for job protection or job creation.

This reminds me of the legislation that was passed in the House last night. It was debated restrictively because amendments could not be taken since the Dáil is in recess. That is why this Bill is before us, because it had to be amended in the Dáil. That is the proper procedure. That is masking the problem, which is far greater than the content of these Bills. The problem with criminal justice is that the Garda Síochána does not have resources to deal effectively with the thugs, scumbags and psychopaths involved in gangland crime. We produce legislation that circumvents a process-----