FRIDAY SITTINGS of the Dáil have been described as an expensive “sham” after a row during which the House was suspended twice within the first 20 minutes.
Fianna Fáil environment spokesman Niall Collins described the situation as an “absolute disgrace, and degrading for this chamber”.
He was introducing a Bill to oblige local authorities to give “substantive” responses within 20 days to written queries.
Before debate on the Bill started, however, a row broke out over the guillotining of debate on legislation dealing with septic tank inspections and charges.
Despite repeated attempts to raise the issue, Leas Cheann Comhairle Michael Kitt insisted that only the Local Authority Public Administration Bill could be discussed, under the order of business agreed on Thursday.
Mr Collins described the Friday sessions of the Dáil as a “sham sitting” and an indictment of the Government, which used it for optics “so you can say the Dáil sits regularly on a Friday”.
He said “we suspended twice even before we got the show on the road this morning” and the monthly session cost €90,000. “But we don’t have order of business, Leaders’ Questions, questions to the Minister, votes” or question-and-answer sessions on topical issues.
Only one Minister, one Minister of State and a few Government backbenchers were in attendance.
“And if you want to promote value for money and engage in real reform, let’s have real sittings on Friday. Let’s have the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and every member of the Government attend,” he told Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan.
The Limerick TD described his five-page Bill as a “minor reform to have more transparency” where “local authorities do not engage adequately enough with sections of society”.
Public representatives then have to chase up responses for the public. “This is unnecessary, wastes time and leads to duplication, resulting in a cost to the system.”
The legislation requires authorities to acknowledge a query within five days or give a substantive reply within 20 days, unless the request is trivial or vexatious.
The Minister, however, rejected the legislation. Mr Hogan said that for local government to be efficient, effective and focused, it had to have a wide level of operational discretion and that was impossible if “basic operational matters” were included in primary legislation.
