Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I backed the Leader 100% on that last year but we have taken our foot off the pedal. Senators have an equal say on joint Oireachtas committees. If we have to facilitate the commencement of committee meetings while the Order of Business is taking place in the House, we should not do so and we should seek a change to the time committees meet. I would also look into the Leader's suggestion of setting aside a few days or a week in the month solely for committee business, which would not impinge on plenary business.

The Order of Business has come in for criticism from time to time. I understand that when some Members entered the House first, they thought it might have been an opportunity to raise local issues. However, in the main that does not happen. Most Members raise issues related to their own briefs and areas of expertise and matters of national importance on any given day while many Members raise issues about legislation. I refute the criticism of even some of my own party colleagues about the Order of Business. They think it is a farce but I refute that and I encourage more Members to engage in the Order of Business. Perhaps we have to look from time to time to take the party political element out of it. I try to do that most of the time but sometimes it is difficult to do so on specific issues. If we take this as a fresh start to see what we can do under the law as it stands, we should do that. There is no question that overall political reform needs to happen and I do not want this to be kicked to touch to produce more reports. People voted for reform. I canvassed on this, as did the Leader who was prominent during the campaign, and voters talked about reform in all areas of politics, including the way politics is conducted, the way members are elected and the business that takes place in both Houses of the Oireachtas. This needs to be examined. There are good reports and Bills from Senator Crown and others. We should consider the Bills and reports that have been published, including my party's document, A Seanad for the People. There are good points in it but I do not agree with all of it.

We produced a document entitled, A Seanad for the People. I do not agree with all of it but it has some good points. The Seanad should get together and set out in boxes what can be done now and what requires legislative change. We must examine whether we need the Government's permission to do certain things. I urge the Leader to examine one issue in the coming weeks, namely, to see whether we can get more time to produce individual Bills.

Thank you, Acting Chairman, for your indulgence. I am in favour of the proposal for the Seanad on European legislation and statutory instruments, in particular those that are signed. People want us to debate the issues at the very least. Senator Daly mentioned that, as did many Government party Senators. We should set aside time to do that work irrespective of whether we get staff. I made the suggestion previously about commitments from each grouping. I can give a commitment that the Fianna Fáil group will give resources from within our own staff. If we were to share the work among our parliamentary assistants and political staff, they could act as rapporteurs. I do not want anyone to say we cannot do such work because more staff would be required. We will return to the issue. It is important that we have spoken about these matters today. I do not disagree with anything the Leader said.

My final point is how we let people know what we do and what we can do. We must examine ways in which we can be inventive in that regard. Senator Byrne referred to the role of the Seanad. As the Leader said, there was much misinformed comment about the Seanad not having blocked certain issues. Let us set out the issues and see whether there is a way of outlining the work of the Seanad each month. If the print media will not cover it we could examine other avenues to do it.