Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As someone who has been in this House for more than five years, I would say to my colleagues that they should not be disappointed about the way Departments react to Private Members' Bills. To get the Department to agree that the Minister would come into the House to discuss the Bill I had before it two weeks ago, I had to agree that I would not refer the Bill on to Committee Stage. Members should not be disappointed. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in Ireland to ensure that if a Bill does not come from a Department but is a Private Members' Bill, it goes no further. One must work at it. I published the Bill I had before the House for discussion two weeks ago in 2014 and for two years, I could not get a Minister to come into the House to debate it. I do not care what the Department says on it. There is resistance when a Bill does not come from a Department. We should be honest about those matters. Members have to continue to fight for that because if they believe firmly in a Bill, which I know is the case with Senator O'Sullivan, they have to keep lobbying, fighting and working with their colleagues to make sure they get the necessary support to bring about change. It is part of the system we have to live with. We might not like it but, unfortunately, that is how I have seen it happen in the past five years. Perhaps that is something we should seek to change so that we can take on board the views of people with expertise in particular areas. The best example was the committee set up to do a ten-year strategy for health. There was resistance to having Members of this House on that committee.

I want to raise one or two more issues. The first concerns the banking sector. Reports in today's newspapers-----