Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have dealt with Article 47. I have also dealt with the question raised on the preferendum side. I made it very clear to colleagues that that is not an option because of Article 47, which requires a majority of people, on a substantive proposal, to come to a view. That is not statistically and politically possible where there are three or even four options within that.

I believe we need fundamental reform of the other House, and we have started that already. I was a Member of this House. Fine debates are held in this House, and fine debates are held in the other House. It depends on the Members contributing to them. There is a great deal of sanctimonious twaddle from people to the effect that the quality of debate is better here. As Brendan Behan famously said, we are all very popular among ourselves.

The argument here is to improve decision-making in Ireland. That is the reason we have proposed, as part of our reform programme, the very point Senator O'Donovan made in the excellent report to which he referred, which was co-authored by the former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, and former Deputy Jim O'Keeffe. He is right in saying it was an excellent report. I will speak about the O'Rourke report in a moment because I have some knowledge of that but what was interesting in the Senator's observations was that the recommendations they made in respect of the new way in which the Dáil and the Seanad should do business is exactly what the Government is proposing. In the proposals we are making, in circumstances where there is not a Seanad, that will lead to significant checks and balances and to a new Dáil system, which will require a four-day week and a change in the way the Dáil does its business. For instance, there will be a new heads of Bill Stage before the publication Stage, which is the First Stage. We will have a Second Stage, a Committee Stage and a Report Stage as normally happens. We will then have a pre-enactment Stage which was proposed by the former Deputy from Cork South-West, Jim O'Keeffe, in the report the Senator mentioned. It is a carbon copy of what the Government wants to do. Within 12 months we will then have a review Stage-----