I have no difficulty in concurring with what is proposed before us today. I would have preferred, perhaps, if we had somewhat more notice of this. All Members of the House, at this early stage in the life of this Seanad, would like to take a detailed look at the operation of the overall committee system within the Oireachtas. For some time now it has been fairly clear that the committee system has been working in a fairly haphazard way. Some committees have been successful and effective. Others have been operating in a rather desultory way and have not been performing the purposes for which they were intended. There are five new committees before us today. I want to make one or two observations.
First, I greatly regret the omission of two committees from the list here today, one is a committee on foreign affairs. It is disgraceful that the House of the Oireachtas do not have a permanent committee on foreign affairs. We have seen, over the last decade or so, the increasing awareness of developments elsewhere on the life of this country, the enormous interest in, and also the impact upon this country, of these events.
We have witnessed the recent events in Eastern Europe. We had a very full debate on that over the past two weeks. Without labouring the point, I think the time has come when we should have a full comittee on foreign affairs in this House. I do not believe any Government have anything to fear from such a committee. If it causes inconvenience to the civil servants, so be it. I believe, in fact, that the majority of civil servants who deal with foreign policy would welcome greater discussion of major issues in the Houses of Parliament. It is only by full debate on these matters, by fully informing ourselves and by using the debate here to communicate with the wider public that we can have the sort of healthy, open debate we require. It is regrettable that the main discussion on foreign affairs is taking place in seminars outside the Oireachtas. It is taking place under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy. They had an extremely worthwhile seminar last week. It is a great schame that such discussions are not taking place in the Houses of the Oireachtas. I want to add the full and total support of my group to the call for a full committee on foreign affairs.
It is also regrettable that no attempt has been made to reconstitute the Committee on Overseas Development Aid. I believe that in the Oireachtas of 1982-87, by far and away the outstanding committee was the committee on Overseas Development Aid. That committee, more than any other, brought into public focus the enormous issues of policies in central America, the effects of famine in Africa and the consequences for us of what we were doing or not doing with regard to overseas aid. That committee had enormous educational influence within this House. It also demonstrated, in a very tangible way to the many agencies outside, and to the increasing number of people who take a very lively and committed interest in these issues, that the Houses of the Oireachtas did care and that there was a body of concerned, educated, informed opinion within these Houses of people who wanted to express their points of view and also wanted to have a sense of accountability from the Government of the day as to what was being done. I believe the workings of that Oireachtas were greatly enriched by that committee.
I would make a plea from the heart to the Government to reconstitute that committee. If the Government feel embarrassed about the level of overseas development aid that is not a good enough reason for not setting up such a committee. We, in these Houses, should act as pressure points where we think it is correct. We should act as pressure points on the Government to increase development aid if we think that is what the Irish people would want, and if we think it is the right thing to do.
What I am saying on this issue is shared by people in all parties in this House. No party has a monopoly on right or virtue on this matter. No party has a monopoly on compassion. All of us want to see this committee reconstituted.
I would also, in this very brief debate, take issue with the length of time it takes — and this is not a criticism of the Government — in each session to have committees constituted. There should be some quasi-automatic device whereby committees come into existence virtually at the same time as a new Parliament meets. We should not have to wait so long for the committees to be set up. Effectively, these committees will only begin their programme of work after Christmas. They should have been set up ages ago. The mechanisms should have been there. The committees should have been ready to run almost at the same time as the life of the new Parliament began.
I would also ask the Government at this stage to consider the greater use of select committees for the consideration of detailed and technical Bills. We, in this House, now see all the irony of the Companies Bill, to which this House gave such attention during the life of the last Seanad. Now the other House has referred it to a select committee. It might be more appropriate that from the very beginning Bills like the Companies Bill should, for Committee Stage, be referred to either a committee of this House, or of the other House, or to a joint committee.
Those of us who worked on the Bankruptcy Bill in joint committee will realise the greater flexibility which such committee work gives on detailed, technical Bills of this kind. I would ask the Leader of the House to convey to the Government the feeling that greater use of select committees on technical, complicated legislation would make for more efficient and effective working of the House.
In welcoming the establishment of these five committees today, and assuring the House that we will certainly play our full part in seeing that they are effective, I would like the Leader of the House to convey to the Government our concern lest this be seen as the end of the matter. There is a need for a considerable number of other committees in this House.
We have, on the Order Paper, a motion asking for the reconstitution of the Committee on Crime, Lawlessness and Vandalism. That was a very timely committee. Some very important issues were aired when that committee was in existence. Some very important legislation emanated from that committee. We are asking for its reconstitution. I would ask that while we obviously accept what is proposed today the omissions from the list be noted by the Leader of the House and that we be given a further opportunity to come back to this matter.