Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps it is a way of doing business while ensuring the Seanad is not reformed. I suppose my question relates to whether we will have a Bill on Seanad reform in the autumn.

I will return to the National Economic Dialogue for my second question. The matter of the engagement of parliamentarians with the Government in the budgetary process, which we have often raised here, was raised at that forum. It would be preferable if we could be engaged in pre-budget discussions rather than post-budget discussions. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, indicated at the conference that he wrote to every committee in January of last year to look for suggestions on the setting of budgets, but no committee responded. There was no engagement, at least in that way. I wonder whether that resulted from a problem with the committees or a difficulty with the process. How can we get more pre-budget engagement from parliamentarians as part of a more open, transparent and inclusive process? I enjoyed the National Economic Dialogue very much. I thought it was terrific. We were able to listen to parliamentarians, members of civil society and representatives of lobbying groups. However, that is not how we should debate our priorities when setting budgets. Similarly, debates within individual committees are not the best way to go about this work. I suggested that we might need to keep child benefit where it is and instead invest more money in children's early years services. Professor John McHale, who is the director of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, mentioned to me in conversation that the OECD has been asked by the Government to make recommendations to it on how parliamentarians might engage in the budgetary process. Can we hear about what those recommendations are when they come in? More important, I would be willing to come in to have a debate at a committee meeting in September. I might even participate with the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform in debating priorities in terms of budget 2016.