Social Democrats suggest TDs should declare their liabilities and income levels from second jobs

All political parties were asked to provide submissions to the Dáil reform committee, following significant upheaval in January over speaking rights for Independent TDs supporting the government. File photo: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

TDs should be required to declare their liabilities and income levels from second-jobs, the Social Democrats has proposed as part of wider Dáil reforms.

A submission from the party to the Dáil’s reform committee calls for new requirements for TDs to declare any of their “significant liabilities”, with a suggestion that any borrowing greater than €500,000 be made public.

The Social Democrats also wants more transparency on secondary incomes for TDs, beyond the requirement to declare income sources above €2,600. At present, this only states that a TD is paid beyond the €2,600 level, but does not detail how much income they receive in total.

“This level of transparency is surface level at best. It is an indication that a potential conflict of interest exists, however, the significance of that potential conflict is unknown,” the Social Democrats' submission reads.

“Public representatives should be required to disclose detail of all significant income, share, and land holdings.”

All political parties were asked to provide submissions to the Dáil reform committee, following significant upheaval in January over speaking rights for Independent TDs supporting the government.

This has lead to broader calls for reform of the Dáil, including calls for speaking time to be rebalanced, particularly for government backbenchers.

It has been widely reported that there was particular frustration within Fianna Fáil over speaking time arrangements, with party sources saying that government backbenchers did not get as many prime-time speaking slots as opposition TDs.

Dublin North West TD, Paul McAuliffe, said Government backbenchers often need to rely on a lottery system for questions in the Dáil, whereas opposition TDs get assigned slots each week at daily questions on promised legislation.

Mr McAuliffe said Fianna Fáil does not want to take time from the opposition.

The opposition is seeking to reform technical groups, which at present are restricted to opposition parties and cannot be formed within the government ranks.

In a joint submission to Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy, the opposition has proposed the introduction of what it calls a “government-aligned technical group”.

It says such a technical group would be treated as “equivalent to a party in government” and would, as such, receive government speaking time as well as government committee slots and committee chairs.

Meanwhile, proposals have also been tabled by multiple parties around changing the weekly voting bloc.

Typically, votes in the Dáil are held during a bloc session, where items like legislation or motions are voted on all at once. In recent years, this has been on a Wednesday evening.

However, in their submissions, People Before Profit and Labour have called for this voting bloc to be changed to a daytime slot to facilitate a more “family-friendly parliament”.

Labour and the Social Democrats have called for the Dáil prayer, which takes place each day, to be removed. Both parties have called for it to be replaced with a period of silent reflection.