Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 4, lines 9 to 13, to delete all words from and including “each of” in line 9 down to and including “Seanad Éireann.” in line 13 and substitute the following:

“the office of the Clerk of Dáil Éireann.”.

When we debated the Bill last week, the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, was in the House and today we have the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin. I outlined the rationale for this amendment. I believe the Houses of the Oireachtas (Appointments to Certain Offices) Bill was drafted by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, and his Department.

As I outlined on Second Stage the main concern is applying a specific term to three of the posts, the Clerk-Assistant of the Dáil, the Clerk of the Seanad and the Clerk-Assistant of the Seanad. I outlined the roles the Clerk of Seanad in addition to the running of the House. That individual sits on SIPO, the referendum commission and the commission that reviews boundaries for general elections. It is a post that requires detailed experience, not just in the running of the House. When it comes to Seanad elections, that person is responsible for verification of Seanad nominations and whether someone is appropriate to a certain panel. That individual is also the returning officer for the Seanad elections, which, as I am sure the Minister of State is aware, are quite complex and require extensive knowledge.

While the appointment to the post of Clerk of the Dáil goes through TLAC, the others do not and would be appointed by the commission. An unintended consequence of the change the Government has introduced would be that effectively the Clerk of the Seanad would be appointed by and answerable to the commission, and the term would be set by the commission. Subsection (3) states:

A person may be appointed to an office to which this section applies for a term specified by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission to be a period of a number of years (or a number of years and months or days).

It puts it up to the commission to set that timeframe which is not done at present. If the commission decided to set it for the term of any given Seanad, that person's appointment would end before the following Seanad election takes place. I would be interested to hear the Minister of State's views on this before I decide to proceed further.

My amendment reads:

In page 4, lines 9 to 13, to delete all words from and including “each of” in line 9 down to and including “Seanad Éireann.” in line 13 and substitute the following:

“the office of the Clerk of Dáil Éireann.”.

The other three posts would remain as they are and a term would not be set for them. My colleague, Senator Paschal Mooney, supports the amendment. I would like to hear the Minister of State's views on it. I made a detailed contribution on Second Stage on the rationale behind it.