TDs will work an extra day a week under radical proposals for Dail reform to be put to the Government next week. Under the sweeping reform plan, TDs will sit four days a week, Ministers will be questioned on a daily basis and deputies will be able to vote electronically.
The Irish Times has learned that the reform package, which will also include "whistleblower" legislation and a new code of conduct for civil servants, proposes the establishment of an Oireachtas commission to oversee and control the funding, staffing and organisation of the Dail and Seanad. However, it is understood it will not include proposals to ban corporate funding of political parties despite concerns raised by the tribunals.
Under the proposals, the Dail would sit from Tuesday morning to Friday afternoon. Currently, it sits from 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday until 5 p.m. on Thursday. However, it is proposed that it would sit only three out of every four weeks and on the fourth week, Dail committees would conduct their business.
The proposals have been drawn up by the Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, in consultation with ministers. The package, along with the response of the Minister for Finance, Mr Mc Creevy, to the recommendations in the Public Accounts Committee DIRT report which proposed radical Dail reform, will be put to the Cabinet tomorrow week.
Mr Brennan was hoping to get consensus from the opposition parties on his reform proposals but following the publication by Fine Gael of its own proposals to shake up the Oireachtas, the all-party approach was abandoned. He is proposing that the Taoiseach comes into the House only once a week to be questioned, similar to the system that operated in the British parliament.
The Order of Business, where the Taoiseach can be questioned every day but only on forthcoming legislation, would be replaced with daily 20-minute questioning of all Ministers, apart from the Taoiseach.
The Taoiseach, who now comes into the house five times a week to answer questions, three times during the Order of Business and twice during Taoiseach's questions, would have just one major question-time session.
Under Mr Brennan's proposals, the Oireachtas commission, an independent body similar to a government department with the Ceann Comhairle as its political head, would run the Dail and Seanad.