Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the budget is coming up, it is important to recognise that the scale of our financial deficit has been well and truly debated in all Chambers but the scale of our national democratic deficit has really only come under scrutiny because of the debate on the Seanad. There are many issues we now have to consider. The 1 million people who voted on Friday looked for reform, not just of this House but, obviously, of all our institutions. There are a number of areas where reform must be considered, particularly given that only 2% of the laws that come into effect in Ireland every year are debated by the Dáil and the Seanad. We have an ongoing situation in which we exclude all those people who, under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, are entitled to be Irish citizens - those in the North and those Irish living overseas in our diaspora.

My colleagues have previously discussed the issue of EU scrutiny, which is an area I have examined. As the Leader knows, we recalled the Seanad this summer to look at one piece of legislation that was brought into Irish law by a Minister without debate, meaning no Deputy or Senator saw the legislation before he signed it into Irish law. It happens with about 75% of the laws made in Ireland that Ministers use their powers under the 1972 Act, which is obviously unacceptable.

We talk about the scrutiny of EU directives, regulations and statutory instruments. I pointed out on the Order of Business the scale of the laws that are coming into effect while bypassing these Houses. One hundred and sixty four EU directives, 194 statutory instruments and 1,291 EU regulations were brought into effect in Ireland in one calendar year without proper scrutiny or debate, as opposed to 47 Acts of the Oireachtas. That is the scale of the national democratic deficit. However, there is no point in talking about our scrutinising of EU regulations unless we have the technical support to do so. We cannot be expected to start scrutinising EU legislation without having staff available to us who will assist us in understanding its nature.

We have talked about our role under the Lisbon treaty. In the first two years after Lisbon, 139 pieces of draft legislation came in from Europe, yet, of the 439 submissions made by EU Parliaments, Ireland made only one submission and even that one was ruled out of order. This should tell us about our inability to engage correctly with EU legislation.

Another role is in regard to scrutinising Government appointments. I am not for one moment defending the previous Government and the way it appointed people to Government agencies and roles. However, this has to change. I would go back to the issue I raised about the Irish overseas and in the North. It is 184 years since O'Connell fought for Catholic emancipation, 95 years since women got the vote for the first time and 45 years since people marched in Derry just to have the right to a vote, yet we still deny the vote to more than 3 million people who are entitled to be Irish citizens, including 1.8 million in the North and 1.2 million who are living overseas and who have Irish passports. That is nearly 40% of those who are entitled to be Irish citizens under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. Only four countries in Europe deny a vote to their citizens overseas - ourselves, Cyprus, Malta and Greece. When one considers that an emigrant leaves Ireland every six minutes-----