Government to reform ‘outdated’ Dáil procedures before autumn

AN ambitious effort to reform the operation of the Dáil in time for the autumn session has begun.

Government chief whip Pat Carey has set up a group to examine every aspect of procedure and practice in the legislature and have changes in place when the Dáil returns after the summer.

“This group will identify how best we can restructure the way we do our business in the Dáil, and to ensure that the Irish people have a modern parliament which reflects their concerns and needs,” said Mr Carey.

Initial details were fleshed out at a meeting of party whips on Wednesday night — but the group will only include Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.

Cross-party proposals have already been tabled but were dismissed as inadequate.

And the suggestion to push through smaller, more focused, reforms in individual pieces was rejected, even though piecemeal changes may have a better chance of gaining cross-party support.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he preferred wholesale reform.

Fine Gael’s spokesman on parliamentary reform, David Stanton, said he would welcome any measure which improved the efficiency of the Dáil.

He said current procedures were outdated, prone to abuse by members and did not provide adequate opportunity to properly discuss topical issues of the day.

Mr Stanton said systems had been allowed develop which removed large amounts of state business from Dáil scrutiny, such as the Health Service Executive and Fás. And the sooner it changed the better, he said.

“At the moment the executive [the Government] completely controls the business of the Dáil and that does not work. The Dáil should have a different role in the 21st century.

“You could say a lot of the mess this country is in is because the Dáil is not functioning properly, it is not able to deal with what needs to be dealt with,” he said.

Labour Party’s Emmett Stagg told Tánaiste Mary Coughlan if the Government tries to dictate a format of its own, without consultation from other parties, it will be resisted.

“Their intention is to steamroll it through the House, but we will resist them strongly. Any such proposal will simply be in favour of the Government rather than the House,” said Mr Stagg.

The development came as a new statistical resource was published to improve the knowledge deputies and senators had about the issues in constituencies other than their own.

The 43 constituency profiles were prepared by the Oireachtas library and research service and launched by Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue.

The concept came from researcher Barry Comerford. He said while elected representatives had a forensic knowledge of their own localities this was not replicated in other parts of the country.

Mr Comerford said the profile series could help to ensure a more coherent national policy.