Fiach MacConghail (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, on publishing the consultation paper on the establishment of an electoral commission in Ireland. We know it is late and that the current Government promised substantial political reform four years ago. However, I believe the House should congratulate itself for the debate it had a couple of weeks ago, where it was announced that the Minister, Deputy Kelly, would publish this. We should bear that in mind and try to make sure an electoral commission that is fit for purpose for a 21st century democracy is enacted before the general election.

In supporting my colleague, Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell, I want to put the House on notice regarding the establishment of the public water forum pursuant to section 7 of the Water Services Act 2014. We have published a motion on the Order Paper around that because it is something that has been promised. It came out of a late debate and is one of the main reasons I voted for the water services charge, along with the fact I agree with water service charges. I am putting this House on notice that we want the Minister to appear before the House as soon as possible to outline the roadmap regarding establishing this very important public water forum in advance of any of the metered or unmetered bills that will be issued in April.

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill has been published and will be debated in the Lower House this week. At 4.30 p.m. today we have a briefing for all Senators on the Bill but, again, there are issues with it. This is probably one of the more important Bills to come before us in the lifetime of this Seanad yet the Government and the Minister have ignored the proposals coming out of the joint Oireachtas committee following pre-legislative scrutiny. There is no point having pre-legislative scrutiny when key issues are not included in the Bill. I am very unhappy about it and I intend to bring it up strongly on Second Stage and Committee Stage when it comes to the Seanad.

The Title of the Bill is the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill yet there is no definition of "low carbon" included, there is no independent advisory body, which was one of the key recommendations coming out of the committee and is something I and some of our group will be supporting, and there is nothing around the timely publication of the report on the Bill to which I referred.