The sub-committee on Dáil reform published its ‘draft’ final report yesterday and it makes for very pleasurable reading. Among the key proposals are the following: Dáil agenda and order of business to be determined by a new business committee chaired by the Ceann Comhairle; A new and powerful Budget Oversight Committee whose work will be…
A (still very preliminary) reaction to the Programme for Government proposal that was launched this afternoon (available here). There is a lot of food for thought here. A lot of interesting proposals – at least on paper – and also some daft ones. Certainly a lot to chew over. A fair bit of things that…
Last week the Dáil passed a government motion to make three important changes to Standing Orders (in typical Dáil fashion with little debate). In summary, the changes that will be in operation from the start of the next Dáil session are: A secret ballot to elect the Ceann Comhairle, Use of d’Hondt formula to allocate…
More hints are emerging about the government’s intentions relating to the election of the next Ceann Comhairle. As reported in a recent post, the government is about to propose a change to Dáil standing orders so that the Ceann Comhairle of the next Dáil will be elected by a secret ballot of all members. As a number of…
Posted by David Farrell, Eoin O’Malley, Theresa Reidy and Jane Suiter January 4, 2016 Much like waiting a long time for the proverbial bus only to see several arrive together it seems the political parties (at least some of them) are starting to take the Dáil reform agenda a little more seriously.
The Spring Economic Statement delivered today (see here) represents a very belated dipping of the toe in the water towards greater budgetary transparency by the government. We were promised this in 2011. The fact that it’s finally starting to happen four years later and coincidentally on the eve of the next election – is noteworthy.…
Posted by David Farrell, April 13, 2015 The Report of the Working Group on Seanad Reform was published earlier today (see here). It was given a limited range of options: no change, minor change, or major change (but not involving constitutional reform). In opting for the latter the working group has defied most expectations (certainly…
The (ab)use of parliamentary whips in the Dáil has been much in the news of late – most recently in the light of an internal survey of Fine Gael TDs by Deputy Eoghan Murphy that was reported in yesterday’s Irish Times (here). Three-quarters of Fine Gael TDs (74%) favour a relaxation of the whip. That’s…
Posted by David Farrell, January 1, 2015 When the government established the Irish Constitutional Convention it committed to providing a response to Dáil Éireann within four months of receipt of a Convention’s report. That this commitment is no longer being adhered to is a matter of some regret. But at least there have been responses…
A recent post on The Story blog (see here) reveals the government’s cynical move to introduce last minute changes to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill 2013 that will make FOI prohibitively expensive and therefore, in large part, unworkable. This (1) is contrary to what was promised and will put Ireland even more out of…
Irish Politics Forum 