Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade for attending the House and apologise for not being in the Chamber for all of his statement, although I did listen to it elsewhere. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O’Sullivan, to the House.

All Members accept the thrust of this Bill. The Tánaiste outlined several reasons he believes it would be inconsistent with Oireachtas procedures. I disagree with his claim that detailed scrutiny of draft EU legislation actually happens at joint committee level. It does not. While I am not criticising committee members, anyone who serves on, observes or reads the Official Report for committees knows that EU legislation or directives, of which there are sometimes 500 items in a year, are not discussed in any great detail. This was proven earlier in the year when we recalled the Seanad for a debate on organ donation, which showed how the State could ensure it resourced its organ donation transplant office correctly. Now the Government is moving ahead with national transplant co-ordinators in each of our trauma hospitals. None of that would have happened had we not had that debate in the Seanad. Moreover, the debate actually happened after the Minister for Health signed a statutory instrument into law with no debate. It was actually the transposition of an EU directive that was not debated at committee level.

I welcome the Tánaiste’s point that there is scope for further work in this area by way of Seanad reform. As I said to the Taoiseach here yesterday, I do not believe it is a question of Seanad reform on its own. The Government, when it took office, said it would reduce the number of committees. It ended up amalgamating existing committees, which became unworkable. The Government then had to go back and increase the number of committees again. With committees that have over 30 members, it is impossible for some committee members to even get a speaking slot. The level of work is far beyond what is actually possible for those committees. That is not a political charge, just an absolute fact.

Yesterday, the Seanad - both Government and Opposition sides - offered the Taoiseach an opportunity to use this House to a greater extent in the legislative process. I thank the Leader, Senator Cummins, for allowing us to introduce this Bill in Private Members’ time because there was no Government business from the Dáil for today. What will happen is that there will be a glut of legislation coming up to every recess. It is not planned properly. One can have periods in both the Dáil and the Seanad when there is a dearth of legislation, but when it comes up to the summer or Christmas recess, a whole heap of legislation will be rammed through both Houses and guillotined. This is what has happened with successive Governments. It is not the way to do business. The business could be scheduled better and this Chamber could assist in that. The issue could be due to insufficient numbers of parliamentary draughtsmen or a lack of legal advice in the Oireachtas to use in the production of Bills.

The Tánaiste referred to the subsidiarity clause and yellow card system under the provisions of the Lisbon treaty. In 2012, of the 428 submissions received on EU legislation, only one came from Ireland. That shows the system is not working. The Tánaiste’s statement that detailed and effective scrutiny happens at joint committee level is patently not true. We will not push the Bill to a vote today. However, I hope the Government will consider what Members have said on it and recognise that our legislative system here does not work as it should do. We have had two years - particularly this year - of concerted effort by the Cabinet to dumb down this Chamber by starving it of work when Members are looking to provide assistance. The attendance record of some Ministers in this House - excluding the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O’Sullivan, who is here now - is abysmal. There was a dumbing down of our business before the referendum. That is now over and done with, and the people have spoken on it. This House should be allowed to do the job it can do. It has Members of vast political and other experience who can do a job in this regard. One yellow card for proposed EU legislation from this State out of 428 from all EU member states is not a good result. Neither is there any detailed scrutiny of EU legislation at committee level. We believe the Seanad could assist in this regard by advancing this over the next several months.