On the Adjournment: With the Oireachtas and Drapier on holidays, backbenchers take over this space. This week, Joan Burton TD reflects on the changes she has seen in the Dail after an enforced five-year absence.
The Dáil I re-entered last June is a very different place to the house I left in the summer of 1997. The dramatic turnover of membership over a period of 10 years is a sobering reminder of the electorate's willingness to hire and fire at will. This is most evident in the depleted Fine Gael corner where the survivors of last year's rout still display all the hallmarks of veterans of the Somme.
The turnover in the press gallery is no less noteworthy and has brought a significant change of reporting style. A camera sweep of empty benches in the chamber for most of the day would also show an equally empty press gallery as political journalists seek their stories in the corridors rather the chamber. This has had a very marked effect on the contributions within the chamber.
There is no homogenous Opposition at any time or on any issue. A rainbow is an very ordered pattern of colour and that order is markedly absent in the benches that face the Government. Rather we have a kaleidoscope of different political colours each seeking to make its own distinctive mark.
An American political scientist concluded once that the length of a Bill Clinton sound-bite for the evening news had dropped from 15 words to eight over the course of his two presidencies. The same force is at work in the daily set piece battle of wits between Government and Opposition and within the Opposition. The daily winner is the one who can compress the point of the day into a memorable phrase.
Looking at the current Dáil through the eyes of a woman deputy is a revealing experience too. This Dáil's female contingent is heavily concentrated in the Labour and PD groups. Sinn Féin and the Greens are women-free zones entirely and there is now just a sprinkling of women in the two larger parties. Women TDs certainly seem to have a more diluted presence than a decade ago.
There is a very definite relaxation the dress code among men TDs. I can't honestly say it is an improvement and the Taoiseach and some ministers spend a fortune on cosmetics and make-up assistance before their Dáil appearances.
The rules of engagement have changed too, not always in the best interest of open and critical debate. I was a Minister of State all through my own first term from 1992-97, so that my current experience as an Opposition deputy is totally new with quite a steep learning curve over the past year to grasp the sometimes bewildering standing orders and House rules that govern debate.
One significant innovation in this session has been the Leader's Questions. Its specific advantage over the routine Question Time is the guessing game the Taoiseach must endure on what issues may be raised by an opposition leader since no notice of topic is required. Surprise is the big advantage here. Pat Rabbitte unexpectedly nibbled away repeatedly over the religious order compensation package. This return to one issue again and again forced the Taoiseach to take a harder line than before and may well cause in time the whole package to unravel as indeed it ought to.
Repeated questions too over Iraq caught the Taoiseach off guard with continuing shifts in position that exposed the hollow shambles of this Government's independence on foreign policy.
These rules ought to be extended to the general ministerial Question Time. In my experience this year,these sessions are wholly unsatisfactory as questions have to stated in advance, leaving the Minister full scope to trot out dreary departmental answers.
The same applies to the questions on the adjournment where a deputy can raise an issue at the end of the day's business and a minister is provided to reply. In practice the minister, often a junior minister from another department, gabbles the official response with no scope for further intervention from the deputy raising the question.
This is an area with great potential for reform. The rules ought to insist on the responsible minister only giving the answer with a comeback question and answer time allowed on the reply.
Ministers are excessively protected from spontaneous questions. If this barrier was removed, Question Time and adjournment debates would have some genuine bite restored with greater media interest. I also expect that the emasculation of the Freedom of Information Act will make the parliamentary question more relevant in the coming session.
Private Members Time is a complete misnomer as it is time allocated to the Opposition groups in rotation to present a Bill or a motion for debate. This leaves no scope for a genuine private initiative from an individual deputy to mount an independent campaign on an issue of interest that might attract cross party support.
The departure of many deputies, myself included,from local authorities offers a window of opportunity to add an extra sitting day most weeks that could in part be devoted to the scrutiny of such private member initiatives. The House of Commons has a regular ballot or lottery to enable a non-office-holder member from either side to table a Bill with guaranteed time allocated to the winners.
There are many issues in need of legislation that never make it to the Government agenda. A case in point is a bill to regulate charities which was the subject of a report from Judge Declan Costello years ago but remains with layers of dust on different Department shelves since.
Unfortunately I doubt if this Government will have any interest in any reform like this. Its record shows it wants a quiescent Dáil with as few sitting days and hours as it can get away with.
This Government is now displaying all the arrogance of one with an unlimited command of power. Its right-wing credentials are embedded into its very fibre and into every decision and policy. It guillotines debates in the Dáil with routine nonchalance and now organises regular mid-term recesses simply for its own convenience with no regard for any standards of public accountability.
There is just one prospect on the horizon that may put some sparkle into Dáil life this coming term. A distinct feeling is certainly emerging that the age of Bertie is fading. The public infighting among ministers is a sure sign that the succession stakes are definitely on. The contestants will want to outshine one another and with any luck, this will add a little to the gaiety of life in an otherwise deadly dull Dáil.
Joan Burton is Labour spokeswoman on finance and TD for Dublin West.
Next week, Arthur Morgan TD (Louth, Sinn Féin)