Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. We were in the Lower House 12 months ago - the year has passed quickly - for the debate on the Appropriation Bill. The Minister of State might recall that at the time there was a fulsome debate on the issue of councillors pay as part of the appropriations. Thankfully, that issue has been rectified. I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, for grappling with this and putting it to bed. This important issue was left hanging for a considerable period.

The Bill before us will allow for the continued spending of money during the next year. If one goes through the different Votes, one can see the range of responsibilities the Government has to ensure that the country is run appropriately and the amount of spending that is required by the various Departments, including the newest, namely, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The sectoral committees consider a wide range of spending programmes each year. The latter do not include all the different agencies that do work on our behalf as well.

Senator McDowell raised interesting points regarding authority, spending and so forth. As a member of the previous Government, it struck me that during the interregnum between the election and the formation of the current Government, the constitution of this House proved somewhat problematic because there was no Taoiseach elected and, therefore, the 11 Taoiseach's nominees to the Seanad could not be put forward. Matters went to the wire in the context of the formation of a Government by the three parties involved. AT the same time, the renewal of the Offences Against the State Act and the passage of various legislative measures required the approval of both Houses. In order to avoid such issues arising again with regard to legislation that would give rise to the need for constitutional change and as part of a larger package of Seanad reforms, the outgoing Taoiseach's nominees should be allowed continue in position until such a time as a new Taoiseach is put in place. This would mean that we would always have a fully constituted House of 60 Members. Following an election, the new Taoiseach would then have the power to nominate his or her 11 nominees. If the nominees of the previous Taoiseach had remained in place in 2020, we would have avoided the situation that arose. We must recognise, however, that said situation happened and that could happen again in the future.

As we have seen, the Parliament has become fragmented. It is not as quick as it might have been back in the time of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats putting a Government together in a number of weeks. Perhaps those days will return in the future with different parties involved. Who knows? There are many smaller groups and parties, however, and it is taking longer to put Governments together. That was a stumbling block on the most recent occasion. It might be something worth considering for a Government of the future.

I will not delay this important work. I commend the Bill the to House.