Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 18:

In page 12, line 15, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”.

The Government "may" consult with the advisory council. This is a kind of "shrug your shoulders" concept. What is the point of having an advisory council if the Government will not consult it? That is what it is there for. A view has been expressed in this debate that policy making is a few people on the inside, who do not really have to write anything down - "a word in your ear" and so on. In this case, they have discretion as to whether they listen to the advisory council or not. These are complicated issues. I have always found that the more ideas that are around the better. To give the Government power to have an advisory committee and ignore it is bizarre. It is not open democracy, reform of public administration or participation in the world of ideas, which, as J. M. Keynes said, are far more powerful whether for good or ill than vested interests. Why does the Government not want to consult its own advisory council and why does it want the discretion to ignore it? It seems to me to be a particularly strange way to set up an advisory council. I would hope to have eminent people on it and that we would always be interested in what they have to say and that they would be in addressing committees in the Oireachtas and talking with Deputies and Senators. The environment is the responsibility of all of us. I would like a more participatory and less restricted, traditional view as reflected in the section as it stands.