Proinsias De Rossa
Ceist:4 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the progress made to date in implementing the review of the Programme for Government.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Programme for Government.
Good progress has been made in implementing the review of the Programme for Government.
On the economic front, Ireland's competitiveness has continued to improve, and the budget made good progress towards implementing the agreed financial and tax reform targets. The Green Paper on Education was published last week. The Common Agricultural Policy reform has turned out to be very satisfactory with due regard for Ireland's special interests. Oireachtas reform proposals have been agreed and submitted to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. The social housing programme is being implemented. The Government have made continued progress in maintaining and, where possible, improving the level of payments to social welfare recipients. The general increase of 4 per cent next month will be well clear of inflation, now expected to be no more than 3.5 per cent. There has also been progress on legislative reform, for example, on the Criminal Evidence Bill and the Solicitors (Amendment) Bill.
The Deputy will be aware, however, that there are a number of commitments that remain to be implemented and that there is, therefore, a very full programme for the remaining two years of the life of the Government.
I like the Taoiseach's optimism.
(Limerick East): Do I hear the sound of cows bellowing?
The meat slicer chops years off that very fast.
A number of promises were made in the review of the Programme for Government, some of which were supposed to be implemented by the end of last year and others by early this year. It was proposed that the White Paper on Marital Breakdown, which was to incorporate a draft Bill, would be published by the end of last year but this has not yet been published. Will the Taoiseach state when he expects this Bill to be brought forward? With regard to the matter of law reform, 16 pieces of legislation were promised but 12 have not yet been published. When is it proposed to publish such legislation? It was proposed to give emigrants the vote. The document was to be presented to Cabinet and a decision made on this subject before Christmas of last year but we have not heard the results of that.
The Deputy has asked about four questions and I hope I will recall all of them.
I will repeat them if necessary.
May I remind the Deputy that not everything included in the review of the Programme for Government was committed to be implemented in 1992? As the Deputy already said, four Bills relating to law reform were introduced and we will continue with this legislative programme. It was never envisaged that this process would be completed within six months or a year, and the Government have a further two years in office. The Programme for Government is to be completed over the term of office of this Government and it does not have to be completed within six months or a year.
That is the second time the Taoiseach said that.
With regard to the matter of the White Paper on Marital Breakdown, may I remind the Deputy that I have already said on a number of occasions that the Minister for Justice will consider it and on completion of that consideration the matter will come before the Cabinet? I expect to have it later this year.
On the question of votes for emigrants, the matter is being considered but because of complexities of a constitutional nature, these have to be resolved before we make progress in this area.
The Government made a commitment in the review of the Programme for Government that local authorities should decide locally on the allocation of national lottery funds. Would the Taoiseach not accept that the Government have reneged on that promise by their decision that no further grants will be made available this year except for ongoing projects which were selected by Fianna Fáil last year?
I am not certain that this issue is appropriate now, Deputy.
It is a commitment of the Programme for Government that the distribution and the decision on where national lottery grants should go would be delegated to local authorities. I ask the Taoiseach where that promise stands.
It is not a matter of legislation. The issue of lottery grants does not constitute a reneging on the commitment in the Programme for Government. At budget time lottery grants were involved in various departmental Estimates and the commitment given by the Government that those lottery grants would be disbursed in future by the Minister for the Environment still holds. He is not going to distribute them.
(Interruptions.)
An Ceann Comhairle——
No, this matter cannot be debated now.
The Government have £4 million this year. The Taoiseach should read the record of last Thursday's Adjournment Debate.
If Deputies want to debate the national lottery, they should avail of another opportunity.
I wish to question the Taoiseach on several other aspects of the review. The review also promised that ground rents would be terminated by 1 January 1997. What progress is being made on that promise and does the Taoiseach foresee any constitutional difficulty in relation to that proposal? In addition, the review promised the establishment of regional authorities by March of this year. It is clear that they have not been established yet. Could the Taoiseach indicate when that might happen? My final question is——
I am glad that it is the Deputy's final point because I have to dissuade Members from putting questions in this multiple form. It is not good enough.
I am trying to save time. Finally, with regard to the promised register of Members' material interests, which is to be established by this September, does the Taoiseach expect that that deadline will be met and what steps have been taken to establish the register?
In reply to the latter part of the question, I do expect that deadline in relation to the register of Members' interests will be met. The proposal concerning ground rents is in the early stages of preparation. What was the Deputy's third query?
It was about regional authorities.
The proposal in relation to regional authorities is in progress and they will be established.
I wish to return to the question of national lottery grants and the promise in the review, which is the subject of this question.
Deputy Mitchell, we are now talking in terms of a programme in respect of legislation promised.
There is no legislation involved.
The question does not relate to legislation merely, it relates to the implementation of the review. There is a promise in the review to implement a procedure whereby local authorities would decide the disbursal of lottery grants in their areas.
The Deputy is being repetitious.
I wish to ask the Taoiseach a question. If there are no funds available for local authority disbursement this year, will the promise be kept in respect of next year and future years?
The matter of the allocation of funds is a matter for the Estimates and budgetary time. It will be decided then, not now.
Would the Taoiseach accept that that means that the review is not worth the paper it is written on?