Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 4, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “(5) A delegation of operational control by the Minister under this Act shall only exceed a period of eight months, where a Minister has laid a motion before, and that motion has been passed by, both Houses of the Oireachtas authorising an extension of such a delegation of operational control.”.

I believe the Minister has made the case for amendment No. 2 very strongly in his own speech because the amendment addresses the issue of timing. It recognises, in terms of the time constraints, that situations may arise in which delegation needs to take place. However, we do not want that to become long-term, over a sustained period, without recourse to the Oireachtas. With respect, the Minister has spoken about the Minister's responsibility, but part of democracy is that we have an Executive and a Legislature, and we as the Legislature also have a responsibility. The Minister may be a Minister and may be very good at being the Minister for Foreign Affairs. There will be other Ministers in time. We as the Legislature - I will probably be in the role of legislator for some time - need to hold the Executive to account and need to be satisfied with our legislation. It is therefore literally our responsibility to ensure there are checks and balances in place. This is part of one of the things Ireland has championed, that is, the idea of having democratic structures and checks and balances. I am not saying there is never a case for ministerial discretion; there is. I will tell the House one area where I would like to see it. I know this comes under not solely the Minister's Department but also the Department of Justice. We talked about Afghanistan. We should be taking in more than 500 people from Afghanistan in terms of visas right now if we are concerned about and care about that issue.