MOVES TO reform and modernise the Dáil are on the agenda for Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett in the new year, including a parliamentary television channel by the end of the year, procedural changes, a new dress code and the banning of four-letter words.
One of his key targets is the establishment of a dedicated TV channel, similar to BBC Parliament, which will broadcast Leinster House proceedings to the population at large.
“That’s one of my pet projects,” he told The Irish Times. He hopes it can be achieved by the end of 2012.
“We have live coverage to approximately 25 per cent of the population through UPC, the cable system. What we’re able to do is relay what you see and hear in Leinster House, live, and we’re now working towards trying to have Sky take it on board,” he added.
It is hoped the national broadcaster will also get involved.
A spokeswoman for RTÉ said the station “would welcome a discussion with the Oireachtas at any time on how best to provide engaging and informative coverage of the proceedings”.
The Ceann Comhairle also wants to see his plan for a better-dressed Dáil implemented. Male deputies would have to wear a jacket and a shirt with a collar – ties would be optional.
A Dáil motion is required for this change but the Government parties are reluctant to give the casual dressers in the technical group a publicity coup.
Barrett isn’t letting the issue go by default: “If you look at the Assembly in Northern Ireland, they have the dress code; everybody abides by it.”
He wasn’t in the chair when Tipperary Independent Mattie McGrath used the word “sh*te” in a recent debate on septic tanks, and Green TD Paul Gogarty’s four-letter outburst took place in the previous Dáil.
However, Barrett is determined to halt this development in its tracks and he warns that a directive will be introduced specifically banning these expressions.
“The use of that sort of language demeans the House,” he said.
Surprisingly, the words in question are not currently on the banned list but there are plans to update it for the first time since 2006.
The existing list of forbidden words includes: brat, buffoon, chancer, communist, corner boy, coward, fascist, gurrier, guttersnipe, hypocrite, rat, scumbag, scurrilous and yahoo.
Another ambition of the Ceann Comhairle is to “liven up question time and bring more people into the chamber”, so he proposes a change whereby he would draw the questions in a lottery before going into the House.
“Nobody would know the draw, so all the deputies who have put down their questions for oral reply will come in because they’ll wait and see are they going to be called.
“If they’re not there, their reply will go as a written reply but they won’t get in the supplementary.”