Vol. 190 No. 6
asked the Minister for Local Government whether he proposes to give legislative effect to the Second Report of the Electoral Law Reform Committee in sufficient time to ensure that the recommendations will be effective for the next General Election.
13.
asked the Minister for Local Government whether he intends to introduce, and request the Oireachtas to enact this session, legislation to implement the further recommendations of the Committee on Electoral Reform.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 and 13 together.
Having regard to the programme of legislation, some of which is still in course of drafting and which it is hoped will be completed before the Summer Recess, it is unlikely that proposals for legislation arising out of the Reports of the Joint Committee on Electoral Law will be presented to the Oireachtas in this session.
Surely the Minister is aware that when the Joint Committee, which is representative of every Party in the House, has unanimously come to certain conclusions, in this mentation of those conclusions in this House could not put any strain on the Parliamentary session ?
It is not so much a question of putting strain on the Parliamentary session. There is also the question of the drafting of these proposals and that is a consideration to which we must have due regard in the present circumstances.
Is the Minister aware that the Committee which has devoted itself diligently and assiduously to the discharge of the task assigned to it has been led to believe that, if it could get through a second report to the Minister, legislation based on that second report would be introduced before the Dáil dissolved and, having regard to the fact that the proposed legislation is agreed and that there will be no contention about it and that all Stages of a Bill could go through this House in 24 hours, would the Minister not reconsider the matter at least so as to enable the agreed recommendations to be implemented by legislation ?
I fully sympathise with the views expressed by the Deputies but the House will appreciate that these matters must come through the normal channels. Despite the fact that they may have been agreed by the Joint Committee, it does not follow that they will be accepted by the House. In fact, I think somebody in the Opposition benches stipulated, when this Committee was being set up, that what was agreed might not be acceptable to the House. I have no way of knowing that what has been agreed by a Committee of the House will be accepted in toto by the House. In addition, there is the difficulty of getting all the various legislation drafted and before this House and through this House during this session. The drafting is a problem and a difficulty over which I have no direct control. It would have been my hope that the course advocated now by the Deputies in the opposite benches could have and would have been followed. However, in so far as this electoral law is concerned, I have already expressed my appreciation of the Committee's efforts and so far as putting its recommendations into operation and bringing them before the House is concerned, I have done and will continue to do everything possible to have them before the House as soon as possible but I cannot give any undertaking.
If the Minister were to get an undertaking and assurance from the various Parties that the recommendations would be accepted, would he then reconsider the decision he has just announced? Secondly, may I ask, if and when this Dáil is dissolved, do the recommendations become ineffective and must they be reintroduced when a new Dáil is elected ?
Even if it were so that there was expressed agreement in the House on the proposals that have emanated from the Joint Committee, I could not give an undertaking that legislation to that effect would be through this House during this session. It is not a question of reconsidering my decision. It is a question of having regard to the facts of the situation as I have outlined them, both in regard to the business of the House during this session and also, and very important, the work in the hands of the Drafting Office, which to a large degree decides the pace and the amount of work which we can put before this House. With regard to the second question by Deputy Corish, as to whether the agreed recommendations of the Joint Committee fall if the House is dissolved before they come before it, I could not say but I will inquire.
Would it not be a very bad thing to have the members of this Committee waste their time in deliberating on these matters and issuing a report and recommendations if they will have no effect after the dissolution of the Dáil?
It does not follow that they will not have any effect.
Can they be put into effect?
That is presupposing that those who would follow us after the next election would not agree with them.
The Committee would have to be reconstituted or make fresh recommendations ?
Will the Minister bear in mind that what he has now said will represent considerable disappointment to the Committee which has functioned on the basis that certain aspects of this problem would be dealt with expeditiously so as to make an early report to the Minister and have that report implemented ? Now the Committee is told for the first time that it is not likely to see its second report implemented, which means that if we have the normal election of a four or five-year Parliament following this Dáil, these recommendations will have no value whatever until four or five years elapse. Surely the Minister at this stage should make an effort at least to express in a tangible way his appreciation of the work of the Committee by giving effect to its recommendations, which are all agreed recommendations?
The Deputy and the House should realise that I have expressed my appreciation in a tangible way in regard to the recommendations of this Committee. As regards disappointment about this matter, before there was ever a Joint Committee set up, there was in my Department, and during my time, a complete review of all these matters which the Committee has since considered and I am disappointed in regard to the fact that greater developments have not taken place.
Would not an amendment of the electoral law in this session be much more important than the Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Bill or the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Bill ?
That is an entirely separate question.
Surely the remedy lies with the Minister?
The Deputy knows that is not so.
We met here on one occasion specially to appoint a successor to Edward VIII. We were called here by telegram. Why can we not do this?
He gets mad when you mention Edward VIII. He would not mind if you mentioned Eichmann.
It is a pity he did not get the Deputy.
The Deputy wanted the Russians to win the war.
Whom did the Parliamentary Secretary want to win the war ?
Will Deputies please allow questions to be answered?
The Parliamentary Secretary is interrupting the House.
The Chair has quite a different view.
It is the only way in which Deputy Lynch is sure of getting on the record.
