Ireland’s parliamentary process has become dysfunctional. The ill-mannered debate in the Seanad just before the Christmas break is illustrative of this, as are the regular spats in the Dáil between the Ceann Comhairle and opposition deputies, as indeed were the 30,000-plus citizens at the gates of Leinster House protesting over water charges – a protest in part born out of the Government’s decision to steamroll the legislation through the Oireachtas without allowing time for reflective debate.
At the heart of this is a parliament – the Oireachtas – that has seen little change since its inception.
It is no surprise, therefore, to see Lucinda Creighton feature parliamentary reform as a core policy for her soon-to-be-named new party. It’s good to see emergent new parties calling for a stronger Oireachtas, but it’s about time the established parties followed suit.
In 2011 this Government promised radical Oireachtas reform. Reforms there have been, but for the most part they have been cosmetic, populist and piecemeal (longer hours; less pay; fewer committees; fewer TDs; efforts to abolish the Seanad).
The only reform of any significance has been to introduce pre-legislative scrutiny. Apart from this one exception we are left with an Oireachtas that looks much as it did in 2011; indeed much as it did in 1975 – the year Enda Kenny was first elected to the Dáil.
Many changes
Oireachtas reform was one of the central planks of the supposed “democratic revolution” – a revolution that has been more about style and posturing than about actual substance. It’s hard to see many changes of any real significance.
Gender quotas, the reinstatement of freedom of information, some aspects of the reform of party finance, the operation of the Irish Constitutional Convention (as opposed to governmental response to date to its outcomes) – these are about the only areas where the Government can rightly claim credit for changing things. But there’s not a lot else.
If this Government can be criticised for its lacklustre reform agenda, then equally many of us calling for reform (before the 2011 election and since) can perhaps also be criticised for not being explicit enough about the reforms they should have prioritised.
We (or at least some of us) have been guilty of letting this Government off the hook, allowing it to hide behind a cloak of vagueness.
As the next election draws near and the party strategists start working on their manifestos it’s time to turn our attention to the next government. And this time we should be more specific on the reforms that need to be implemented.
Undoubtedly a key area desperately in need of reform is our parliamentary process.
The next government needs to be held accountable to the Dáil in a manner that is implied by article 28.4.1 of the Constitution – which states that “the Government shall be responsible to Dáil Éireann” – and in a way that is more normal in most of Europe’s other parliamentary democracies.
To that end, here is a five-point plan that all party leaders truly serious about Oireachtas reform should sign up to in advance of the next election (all of these points are recommendations of the Constitutional Convention, by the way):
1 The first act of the new Dáil will be to elect by secret ballot of all TDs the Ceann Comhairle. The same procedure shall be used for electing the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad.
2 The newly elected Ceann Comhairle shall be asked to implement a root and branch review of Dáil standing orders with a view to giving the Dáil significantly more control over its own agenda. A similar process shall be implemented in the Seanad.
3 Committee chair positions shall be allocated proportionate to party size with the committee chairs elected by a secret ballot of TDs and Senators.
4 All political parties shall agree to relax the use of parliamentary whips (except, for instance, in the case of money bills).
5 The Oireachtas Working Group of Committee Chairs shall be empowered to call the Taoiseach to appear before it to answer questions.
Between them these five points would greatly improve the balance of power between the Oireachtas and the government. Any party leader truly serious about the need for political reform should have no difficulty signing up to all of them and placing them in their party’s manifesto.
David Farrell holds the Chair of Politics at UCD (Twitter: @dfarrell_UCD)