LAURENCE KELLY THE OIREACHTAS: EXAMINATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF TWO COMMITTEES OF THE 27TH DAIL AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE FUNCTIONS OF PARLIAMENT May, 1998 ABSTRACT This dissertation set out to review the array of Oireachtas Select and Joint Committees created at the start of the 27th Dail in 1993 and reestablished following the change of government in 1995 and to explore their impact on the functions of parliament. To begin with, secondary literature relating to tasks associated with parliaments is discussed drawing on Irish experiences and practices where possible. The many debates on Oireachtas reform over the past twenty years are examined, primarily with a view to learning the views of parliamentarians regarding the specific use of committees. A range of factors which it is felt have a critical impact on the operations of parliamentary committees and their members in a number of countries are presented for consideration. An overview of the Oireachtas committees in existence in 1996 illustrating such features as the role of women, payments to chairpersons and extent of membership by deputies and senators is offered. Two case studies relating to the operations of the Select Committee on Legislation and Security and the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs examine the detailed activities of both these committees for the period 1993 - 1996, highlighting the degree of involvement by members, workload, observations of participants and main players over time, difficulties encountered and a number of observations are presented regarding their operations. The study concludes that the committees offered parliamentarians, government and interest groups a unique opportunity to unleash, enkindle and fuse talents and knowledge from sources hitherto largely removed and uninvolved in detailed public policy formation. The potential benefits available from their employment, however, were severely hampered by the sheer overabundance of committees with consequent strain on all the stakeholders/players involved, the persistence of government domination in parliamentary output, the continuing emphasis on constituency work by members which tended to place those who wished to pursue an energetic, active role in committee operations, possibly at the expense of less well-publicised constituency activity at an electoral disadvantage, the failure by the authorities to provide appropriate resources for effective and dynamic output from the committees and the lack of appropriate media recognition combining to dilute their effectiveness. The amendments to the committee system, announced for the 28th Dail are noted, observing that many of the changes flow from the experiences gained from their use in the 27th Dail which in itself justified their creation and experimentation. ( i i ) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this dissertation involved the cooperation of a number of people. I am particularly grateful to my college supervisor, Dr. Eunan O’Halpin for his encouragement, guidance and practical advice over the past two years. The support of my wife and family during this period is also very much appreciated by me. I commenced this study on a part-time basis in December, 1995, with an expectation of completing it in eighteen months. However, I found that with additional employment duties, I was effectively obliged to place matters "on hold" for a period of six months. Laurence Kelly, May, 1998. ( i i i ) THE OIREACHTAS: EXAMINATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF TWO COMMITTEES OF THE 27TH DAIL AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE FUNCTIONS OF PARLIAMENT CONTENTS Page Introduction (v) Abbreviations (ix) List of Tables (x) Chapter 1 Parliaments and Parliamentarians 1 2 Why the Oireachtas accepted the Status Quo. 20 3 Reform of the Oireachtas: Role for Committees 29 4 Committees as elements of Parliaments’ operations 42 5 Oireachtas Committees - 1996 74 6 Select Committee on Legislation and Security - 1993 87 7 Select Committee on Legislation and Security - 1994 105 8 Select Committee on Legislation and Security - 1995 123 9 Select Committee on Legislation and Security - 1996 143 10 Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs - 1993 161 11 Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs - 1994 176 12 Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs - 1995 and 1996 191 13 Summary and Conclusions 204 Appendices 223 Bibliography 263 (iv) Introduction The new role for the Oireachtas as a result of the creation in 1993 of a network of select and joint committees was hailed as an advancement in parliamentary reform in Ireland insofar as it was seen as probably the greatest single change in the way that the Oireachtas conducted its business since the foundation of the state (Noel Dempsey, government chief whip, Dail debates, 18 February 1993). With a view to examining this development further, I began by compiling an inventory of the perceived functions of parliaments as presented in literature by such academics as Norton (1990, 1992, 1993], Wheare (1968), Laundy (1989) and others. This revealed that parliaments are generally acknowledged as being entrusted with tasks embracing legislative, policy-making, scrutinising, representational, educational, teaching, elective and debating functions. Each of these facets of parliamentary activity are discussed in chapter one. At a later point case studies are presented which examine in detail the activities of two revamped Oireachtas committees which explore the impact, if any, their operations have had on both the functions of the Irish parliament (Oireachtas) and on the parliamentary members themselves. To this end I studied literature highlighting the many tasks associated with parliaments in a number of jurisdictions and in different constitutional arrangements in order to gain an international view on the subject. With a view to placing the then current new practices in an historical context in terms of the development of the Oireachtas, some of the debates on Irish parliamentary reform over the past twenty years were reviewed in order to elicit the members own (v) views on the topic with a focus on instances where parliamentary committee utilisation were discussed. Various forces which might impact on the proceedings of committees and their members were examined in an attempt to identify key factors with a bearing on the fortunes of committees. Secondary literature, discussed in chapter four, presents and considers a range of components such as the degree of specialisation by members, role of the media, powers of committees, provision of facilities and the role of outside bodies which authors such as Shaw (1979), Olson and Norton (1996) and others indicate have consequences for the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of parliamentary committees and are linked to the wider totality of parliamentary activities. Arguments both for and against the use of committees are presented reflecting the views of writers in a number of countries such as Baines (1985) and Donnelly (1997) in Britain, Heidar (1997) and Andeweg (1997) in other parts of Europe and O’Halpin (1986) and Arkins (1990) relating to Ireland. As it would have proven impossible to realistically examine all the committees of the 27th Dail/Oireachtas, I decided to present an overview of the committees, existing in 1993 -1996, to highlight a number of common issues such as scale of membership, remuneration and the position of women in Oireachtas committees and to concentrate in greater detail by means of two case studies on one select committee, confined to Dail members, with a large legislative workload and a joint committee, drawing members from both Houses and concentrating primarily on policy matters. To this end, I selected the Select Committee on Legislation and Security and the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. ( v i ) This dissertation is based primarily on the proceedings of the sample committees from 1993 until the end of 1996, even though the 27th Dail continued to operate until mid 1997, and a number of changes to the then system have occurred since that time and are noted in the conclusions. The study involved the examination of all the printed and published records of relevant committee proceedings, annual reports, newspaper articles, contact with committee secretariat in Leinster House and correspondence/interviews with some officials of the Houses of the Oireachtas. The case studies entailed the examination of the operations of the two committees on a year-by-year basis from 1993-1996. The reason for adopting this methodology was to conform with the availability of records and reports and also to facilitate the study of changes and trends over the passage of time in such matters as attendance, difficulties, reactions to output, level of expertise of members, commitment and attitudes of members, government and associated forces. Tables are presented which endeavour to illustrate the workload of both committees, the attendance and input/contribution rates over the period of the review and the expenditure considered by the committees in the estimates process. Many of the calculations are purely to demonstrate the scale of operations and commitment to the committees and are in no way an attempt to adopt a score card approach to committee operations as this would serve no useful purpose. Unfortunately, I found that the proceedings of committees, other than the consideration of estimates and the committee stage of legislation, ceased publication after a short time allegedly in order to save expenditure. Furthermore not all committees published annual reports in spite of the requirement that they so