THE NUMBER of TDs should be reduced by more than half, to 70 or 80 instead of 166, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.
The former Fianna Fáil leader said a system of single-seat constituencies should be introduced and this would lead to better scrutiny of parliamentary legislation.
His comments are quoted in a newly published study of the Irish parliamentary system by solicitor and legal scholar Dr Brian Hunt.
In December 2009, Dr Hunt received an Oireachtas parliamentary fellowship worth €18,000 to mark the 90th anniversary of the first meeting of the Dáil.
Interviewed for the research project in October 2010, Mr Ahern argued that a significant reduction in TDs and a greater complement of support staff would be more conducive to enhanced scrutiny of legislation. “The task of scrutinising legislation could be greatly improved if there were less TDs,” he said. “We could do with far less TDs, a system with 70 or 80 single-seat constituencies, with each TD perhaps having a support staff of say five, one of whom would be dedicated to the task of scrutinising legislation.”
Mr Ahern also called for a more consultative approach to the preparation of legislation. “In my view, a far better way of devising policy and making laws is if the matters have first been addressed in a Green Paper and White Paper.
“Issues which are tackled in this way are far better thought-out and receive far better scrutiny than a Bill which just appears out of nowhere and gets pushed through the Houses.”
The high level of constituency work was another distraction from the legislative process but this could be reduced if State agencies were more amenable to approaches from the public, Mr Ahern said.
On the much-criticised use of the “guillotine” to push through legislation, he said: “Departments frequently hold back Bills and vast numbers of amendments until close to the end of a session, then they produce the Bill or the amendments and insist that the Bill be passed before the end of the session, this then requires the use of the guillotine.”
Mr Ahern was critical of the way the Dáil conducted its business: “In my view the Dáil is not efficient . . . The work of the Dáil could be organised and carried out in a better and more efficient way.”
Dr Hunt's research project, The Role of the Houses of the Oireachtas in the Scrutiny of Legislation, is available from the communications unit at Leinster House.
The full text can also be found on oireachtas.ie.