David Higgins

That time of the year again. Lots of work to be done but no time to do it. The holidays of TD’s and Brian Cowen’s tan takes precedence over the few dozen bills before the house in the coming days. Recently we’ve seen other problems in the Dáil with the house suspended for 3 hours one afternoon after TD’s ran out of things to say. The Seanad is the house that everyone talks about as being in need of reform however everyone forgets that the main house is just as flawed. Here’s some changes I believe will make things run better in the national parliament.

1. Change the holiday dates of the Dáil so that there is never a gap of longer than a month. The current summer recess of 3 months is a luxury only endured by secondary school students and their teachers and even we only get 2 weeks during Christmas. (TD’s get 4!). This change would mean that the Dáil would have no end. It would run continuously with spaced breaks to ensure TD’s have holidays and time to catch up with constituency duties etc. A Dáil with no end would not have a backlog of bills to be passed and it would ensure that all legislature is scrutinized and that amendments can be made orderly and can be considered properly.
2. When the Dáil broke for 3 hours a few weeks ago both side of the house were to blame. The opposition underestimated it’s speaking time however the government had no bills in backup to be discussed. This must become a mandatory system where the government can have a bill in reserve. This will ensure efficient running of the house and it wouldn’t leave time wasted.
3. Finally we need to increase the amount of time that the Dáil spends in session. Currently it sits less days than I do in school and the total time would be less also. I know TD’s and ministers have many other tasks to do and many of those aren’t even in Dublin however there will always be someone around to speak in the house, after all there are 166 TD’s. Keeping the Dáil open 5 days a week would be a very positive step and it would give TD’s who normally wouldn’t have an opportunity to speak a chance to air their views. It also puzzles me that the Dáil starts at 10.30 am when most workers are at their desks by 9. This also needs to be changed.

I think many of these measures would have solved the problems we saw these past few weeks and there is no doubt that my proposals are pro-democracy.

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