FF backbencher calls for Dáil reform

A GOVERNMENT backbencher called for Dáil reform as the House debated a Labour Party motion opposing the lengthy summer adjournment.

MJ Nolan (FF, Carlow- Kilkenny) suggested there was a need to “change the way we do our business in this House”.

However, Minister of State for Finance Martin Mansergh said “we do have a lot of work to do all year round, bar short breaks which we like everybody else are entitled to and I don’t think we should apologise about the way we do our business”.

Some newspapers in order to boost their circulation would be trying to have some fun at the expense of members of the House. “We should stand up for ourselves and not cower before cartoons and cheap comments,” he said.

He rejected comparisons with the legislatures of much larger countries and administrations, which were of “limited validity”. The lengths of breaks have been “significantly shortened from what they were in the 1980s and the practice of the rainbow coalition was the same as its successors,” he said. The Government would be focusing on the estimates in July and September and outside of August committees would continue to meet.

“Ministers and deputies will have the opportunity to take on a range of political engagements locally, nationally and sometimes internationally that are not always possible when the Dáil is sitting,” he said.

Seán Sherlock (Lab, Cork East) said when he was elected last year he expected that “one would be up to one’s oxters in legislation but the opposite was the case”.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore sharply criticised the Green Party who claimed credit for three additional sitting days, agreed by Government following the Labour motion.

He said: “It certainly falls well below what they promised in their manifesto. That contained a commitment to doubling the number of sitting days, which would have brought us to around 180 days. At this rate of progress – three extra days every year – the Green commitment will be met in or around 2038.”

The Labour motion was defeated by 71 votes to 60.