I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time".
This Bill provides for the payment of allowances to chairpersons of certain Oireachtas committees and to the Leader of the House in the Seanad. It also provides for the removal of the statutory provision — applicable only to Members of the Oireachtas who reside within ten miles of Leinster House — which restricts the payment of travelling allowances to such Members to days on which they attend sittings of the relevant House, or meetings of House committees. In addition, provision is made for the making of payments to non-office holding Deputies and Senators for secretarial assistance as well as for the payment to parties and parliamentary groups of an allowance to enable them to engage staff who work for the parties or groups collectively.
In relation to chairpersons of Oireachtas committees, this Bill will give effect to the recommendations of the review body on higher remuneration in the public sector. This review body recommended payments for chairmen of Oireachtas committees because the workload of the chairperson significantly exceeded what would be regarded as the fully extended range of responsibilities and workload of an "ordinary" Member of the Oireachtas. The review body recommended that it would be appropriate to recommend an allowance of £6,000 per annum for the chairman of each committee, with the exception of the Joint Services Committee which was recommended at £3,000 per annum.
Accordingly, section 2 of the Bill provides that the Government may, by order, provide for the payment of an annual allowance to every non office-holding Member of the Oireachtas who is the holder of the position of chairperson of designated Oireachtas committees. It also provides that the Government may determine the amount of the allowance and that different amounts may be specified in respect of different committees. It is intended that, in line with the review body recommendations, an allowance of £6,000 per annum, updated to £6,500 by reference to pay increases in the meantime will be paid to non-office holding chairpersons of the following committees: the Committee of Public Accounts; the Joint Committee on the Irish Language; the Joint Committee on Women's Rights; the Joint Committee on Commercial State-sponsored Bodies and to the chairman of the British Irish Parliamentary Body and that an allowance of £3,000 a year, updated to £3,250 will be paid in the case of the chairperson of the Joint Services Committee.
As Deputies will be aware, the section of the Programme for a Partnership Government, "Broadening Our Democracy", outlined a range of measures, including a framework for a committee system which the Government believes will develop the role of the Oireachtas. The new committee system, which did not exist at the time of the review body examination, is the most fundamental change in the way the House has conducted its business since the foundation of the State. The success or failure of these committees will largely depend on the effectiveness of the chairpersons as they will play a key role in ensuring the success of the new system. The task will be a difficult and time-consuming one. For that reason, it is felt that the chairpersons of these committees should be paid allowances at a somewhat higher rate than those recommended by the review body for the chairpersons of the committees which were in existence at the time of the review. It is, therefore, intended to pay an allowance at the rate of £9,000 a year to the chairpersons of the following committees: the Select Committee on Finance and General Affairs; the Select Committee on Enterprise and Economic Strategy; the Select Committee on Legislation and Security; the Select Committee on Social Affairs; the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Section 3 of the Bill provides for the payment of an allowance to the Leader of the House in the Seanad. It is envisaged that an allowance of £6,500 per annum would be paid.
Section 4 of the Bill provides for the payment of these allowances by way of addition to salary to those Members who qualify for them. This section also provides that the allowances will not be payable in respect of any period before 12 January 1993, the date on which the present Government was formed. The intention is that the allowance will be payable from whatever date, after that date, a particular chairperson or Leader of the House was elected to the relevant position.
Section 5 provides that the rates of the allowances may be increased administratively in line with general pay movements in the Civil Service. This is a common provision.
Section 6 provides that contributions in respect of superannuation entitlements, under the Houses of the Oireachtas Members pensions scheme may be deducted from the allowances.
The Bill also provides for a regularisation of the manner in which secretarial assistance to non-office holding Members of Dáil and Seanad Éireann is organised.
A non-statutory scheme for the provision of secretarial assistance to non-office holding Deputies and Senators has been in operation for a number of years. Under this scheme, a secretarial assistant is provided for each non office holding Deputy and for each three Senators. The cost of these secretarial assistants is met from moneys under the Oireachtas Vote. Additionally, a number of posts are provided to each party and to the Technical Group to carry out certain tasks associated with the operation of the parliamentary group, for example, to act as leader's secretary, to assist Whips or the press office or to carry out research work.
Most staff engaged under the scheme are graded at secretarial assistant level, but a small number, including several who are assigned to individual Deputies, are in the promotional grade of administrative assistant, while each party has at least one staff member at administrator level. Members of the scheme are covered by a non contributory pension scheme which is similar to that which applies to unestablished civil servants.
Staff belonging to the scheme, although paid directly from the Oireachtas Vote, are recruited either by Members or by the parties. Under the scheme as currently operated, staff are normally employed under contract for the life of the Dáil and a few weeks thereafter. The difficulty is that the existing arrangements are largely ad hoc in nature and a number of anomalies and general difficulties have arisen.
In addition, a potentially more significant problem relates to the compatibility of the scheme with the Constitution. Legal opinion suggests that the scheme, because it is not provided for in law, could be in conflict with Article 15.15 of the Constitution. There is also a possible constitutional problem in providing secretarial assistance to outgoing Deputies following the dissolution of the Dáil. I consider it most important that any doubts on this score should be resolved without further delay.
The High Court recently considered the question of the status of the members of the scheme. This arose from proceedings brought by a secretarial assistant who has become redundant following the defeat in the 1992 general election of the Deputy who had been her employer. Mr. Justice Keane decided that she, and other members of the scheme, were employees of the political parties or of individual Deputies.
I am convinced that the existing scheme is so flawed as to require replacement. This can, I believe, be best effected by giving statutory force to the judgment of Mr. Justice Keane and by making payments to Deputies which enable them to employ secretaries directly.
Accordingly, section 7 of the Bill under consideration today proposes that an annual payment, of an amount to be determined by order of the Minister for Finance, be made to each non-office holding Deputy to enable him or her to employ a secretarial assistant and to pay related employers costs. It is intended that the amount in question will incorporate a sum to cover up to six hours overtime per sitting week and also incorporate a pension element and a contribution towards other employment charges, such as costs arising on termination of employment.
The Bill deliberately takes the Minister for Finance out of the picture so far as specifying pay or conditions of employment are concerned. There are two reasons for this. First, experience has shown that such ministerial involvement in our existing industrial relations system means that consideration of particular options has to be weighted against potential repercussions throughout the public service. Second, it would simply have the effect of re-establishing existing arrangements which have proved to be unsatisfactory to Members, to the secretarial assistants and to parties generally. Accordingly, the legislation does not confer on the Minister for Finance any function in this regard.
Section 7 provides that staff will be engaged under a contract of service or contract for services with the Member of Dáil Éireann and such contract shall specify that no liabilities arising out of such contract shall attach to the State, to any Minister of the Government or to the chairman of Dáil Éireann. It would, therefore, be a matter for each Deputy to decide whether he or she should employ a secretarial assistant or obtain secretarial services from more than one source.
Currently, secretarial assistants are members of a non-contributory pension scheme which entitles them to a lump sum and pension at the age of 65. It is the intention to protect the superannuation benefits already earned by secretarial assistants either by preserving benefits which would become payable at retirement age or by paying its transfer value into any pension scheme which they might subsequently join.
In view of the possible constitutional impropriety of providing secretarial facilities to outgoing Deputies following the dissolution of the Dáil, section 7 makes provision for this allowance to be treated in the same manner as Deputies' pay — that is a sum equivalent to one-eighteenth of the new allowance to become payable on a dissolution.
As we all know, substantial changes in the composition of both Houses of the Oireachtas take place with each general election. To cover the effects of such changes on secretarial staff, it is intended that provision will be made in the annual payment for an element to cover the cost of statutory redundancy and sums in lieu of minimum notice.
Section 8 of the Bill, provides, in relation to Senators, for similar allowance arrangements, but with an allowance of only one-half of the sum applying to Deputies. This will, effectively, improve the ratio of Senators to secretarial assistants from 1:3 to 1:2. This change reflects the Government's consciousness that Senators as part-time politicians are facing an ever-increasing workload which involves more extensive research, including analysis of numerous reports, than heretofore. Senators have expressed concern about the difficulties which they face in this regard on a number of occasions and the Government considers this to be an ideal opportunity to redress these problems. It will be open to Senators to combine to employ a secretary or alternatively to obtain secretarial services on a part-time basis.
The staff shall be engaged under a contract of service or contract for services with the Member or Members of Seanad Éireann and such contract shall specify that no liabilities arising from such contract shall attach to the State, any Minister of the Government or the chairman of Dáil or Seanad Éireann. Since Senators, unlike Deputies, remain in office pending the election of the new Seanad, the payment of one-eighteenth of the annual allowance, which is provided for in the case of Deputies, will not apply to them.
Section 9 makes provision for those other staff who provide services to each party collectively rather than to individual Deputies. In this context, special provision is being made for parliamentary groups comprising not less than seven non-office — holding Members of Dáil Éireann, such as the Technical Group, so that they too may engage staff to provide support services to the group as a whole. This section includes an enabling provision which would allow the Minister for Finance to make an annual grant to parties and groups to cater for the payment of such staff.
Section 10 provides that allowances payable under sections 7, 8 or 9 shall be exempt from income tax in the hands of any Member of Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann.
Section 11 makes provision for the laying of orders under this Bill before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after they are made to comply with the necessity of bringing the arrangements into line with the requirements of the Constitution and of efficient administrative practice.
The provisions in section 12 enable the Minister for Finance to amend the existing regulations governing Oireachtas travel allowances to enable Deputies or Senators residing within ten miles of Leinster House to claim daily travel payments for attendance on "non-sitting" days. This will bring them into line in this respect with other Members.
Finally, section 13 provides for a short title, collective citation and commencement.
What I want to emphasise about these provisions in relation to secretarial assistance is that they comprise, primarily, a framework designed to ensure that they put the provision of a service, which it is fair to say is much appreciated by Members and on which we all acknowledge our dependence, beyond the reach of legal challenge based on non-compliance with Article 15.15 of the Constitution. For the first time, we are putting secretarial assistance firmly on a legislative base. Far from giving existing staff cause for alarm, these provisions ensure that the employment of this group, the unsung champions of the workings of our democracy, is assured so that their position cannot be suddenly jeopardised as a by-product of malicious or imprudent litigation. It is intended also to underline the reality of the employer/employee relationship and remove any ambiguity which gave rise to confusion and difficulty, and it has to be said that confusion and difficulty have arisen, even in the case at the Labour Court.
I want to stress also the framework nature of the provisions of this Bill because, as with the formal but non-statutory scheme we operated in the past, it leaves scope for initiatives to be taken by members of the parties to meet the concerns of existing staff. Some such concerns have been clearly and cogently expressed to me and to other Whips and, through us, to the Minister for Finance. They have also been brought formally to the attention of officials of the Department of Finance. I and my fellow Whips have placed on record our anxiety to allay these fears and to utilise such scope as is provided by the minimally prescriptive sections 7 to 10 of the Bill once the fundamental requirements of the Constitution have been met. We have said time and time again — and I reiterate it for the record — that we have agreed to explore with them and their representatives possible solutions to their difficulties and perceived difficulties.
There have been fears expressed outside this Chamber that the enactment of this Bill would be followed by sudden and dramatic action affecting the existing corps of secretarial staff. This Bill, like others, specifies that its provisions will come into effect on days and dates determined by ministerial order. There is no question of any such order being rushed through the House to give instant effect to these provisions. That is further underlined by the fact that we decided, following discussion on the Order of Business this morning, that we would take Second Stage only today. It was never intended that the Bill would be pushed through the House and the orders signed. A categoric assurance to that effect was given by me and the Minister for Finance and, I thought, accepted by the Whips. I reiterate that the provisions of these sections of the Bill will not come into effect until negotiations have taken place.
I have made it clear to my fellow Whips, and it has been explained directly to representatives of the staff concerned, that the interval between the enactment of this Bill and the making of any orders provides an opportunity for all of us to get together to find a satisfactory and acceptable solution to any problems perceived. In effect we can do that in the interval between Second and Committee Stages.
When it became obvious that this Bill was coming before the House, the Whips discussed it among themselves. We agreed that we would collectively go to the Minister for Finance and meet the unions. We met the unions, heard their views and conveyed those to the Minister for Finance. I conveyed back to the unions the position of the Minister for Finance on this matter. I am concerned that a number of statements were made that there had been no negotiations or consultations. I underline the fact that there were such consultations and thank the other Whips for their assistance in this matter. I assure all secretaries, particularly those of my own party, that full consultations will take place. I am sure I speak for the other Whips and they will do the same on behalf of their secretaries.
I want to conclude by emphasising that these changes do not threaten anybody. The current arrangements are ambiguous, unwieldy and, quite possibly, unconstitutional. Anybody who was a Whip after a general election will know what I am talking about. Legislative change is essential. It is my belief that the provisions of this Bill represent a fair and reasonable balance between, on the one hand, the need to cater for the interests of existing secretarial assistants and, on the other, the necessity of bringing the arrangements into line with the requirements of the Constitution and of efficient administrative practice.
Some people alleged that we are trying to sneak this Bill through. Before the provisions of this Bill will be implemented each one of the Whips will have to consult widely with the members of their own parties. It will be absolutely necessary to do so since its provisions affect not only our secretarial assistants but every Member of the House. There is no way that such a Bill could be passed without consultation. I must re-emphasise that fact.
I commend the Bill to the House for approval.