For at least 30 years there have been complaints about politicians taking three months off over the summer, abandoning the role for which they were elected as legislators.
During virtually every one of those 30 years the Opposition parties have sided with the media in complaining about early adjournments and demanding resumptions of Dáil sittings during July and September, but the Dáil takes flight for just as long when they are in government.
The usual guff advanced to dismiss complaints about the infrequency of Dáil sittings is that TDs are working 16 hours a day, seven days a week in their constituencies every week of the year, and Ministers are tied to their ministerial desks for even longer. That does not deal with the point that they were elected to the Dáil and if the Dáil is not sitting they cannot be doing what they were elected to do.
Recently there has been a new spin: the Dáil's
"plenary sessions" are suspended for the summer months but the committees remain in session and deputies are indeed attending to their work as legislators during this time. It was Ruairí Quinn who came up with that one.
Well let's look at that one. (The following information was obtained from the Oireachtas website, which I presume is reliable.) The committee on agriculture and food (chairman Johnny Brady) had no meetings last year during the summer months (by which I mean from July 1st, 2005 to September 28th, 2005, the period during which the Dáil was not in session). The committee on arts, sports, tourism, community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs (chairwoman Cecilia Keaveney) had no meetings last year during the summer months. The committee on communications, marine and natural resources (chairman Noel O'Flynn) had no meetings last year during the summer months. Two sub-committees of this had no meetings during the summer. The committee on education and science (chairman not stated) had three meetings during the summer months. The committee on enterprise and small business (chairman Donie Cassidy) had three meetings.
The committee on environment and local government (chairman SeáHaughey) had two meetings. The committee on European affairs (chairman John Deasy) had one meeting. A sub-committee of the latter on European security had one meeting.
The committee on finance and the public service (chairman SeáFleming) had five meetings. The committee on foreign affairs (chairman Michael Woods) had three meetings. A sub-committee on development co-operation had no meetings. The committee on health and children (chairman John Moloney) had six meetings. A sub-committee on alcohol misuse did not meet.
The committee on justice, equality, defence and women's rights (chairman Seán Ardagh) had two meetings. A sub-committee on the Barron report had no meetings. The committee on social and family affairs (chairman Charlie O'Connor) had three meetings. The committee on transport (chairman John Ellis) had three meetings. The committee of public accounts (chairman Michael Noonan) had one meeting.
This means that of the 14 committees none met more than six times; that is six afternoons during the 13-week period. One committee met six times, one met five times, five met three times, two met twice and three didn't meet at all. The average over the 14 committees is less than 2½ times; that is less than 2½ afternoons. And yet the pretence that the committees are working through the summer persists.
It isn't as though there is nothing for the Oireachtas to do. Several important pieces of legislation were rushed through the Dáil and Seanad in recent weeks that would have benefited from more legislative time, but that apparently wasn't available.
The following pieces of legislation were either rushed through the Dáil or awaiting enactment: the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Amendment Bill 2006; the Defence Act (Amendment) Bill 2006; the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006; National Sports Campus Development Authority Bill 2006; the National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002; the Institutes of Technology Bill 2006; the Road Traffic Bill 2006; the Criminal Justice Bill 2004, with 200 amendments proposed by its sponsor, Michael McDowell; the Building Societies (Amendment) Bill 2006. McDowell had published two Bills, on defamation and privacy, which the Dáil could also have debated had it sat through July and resumed in early September.
At the heart of these prolonged parliamentary absences is an indifference about the public weal. Politics is about jockeying for position, unsettling one's opponent or avoiding being unsettled, the occasional headbutting, but rarely about the substantive issues that confront society, such as inequality, injustice to Travellers, to refugees, to people in mental hospitals and in prisons, the massive epidemic of sexual abuse and violence. And they complain about public apathy.