The Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures Bill 2013 was published this week. This legislation will allow the Oireachtas to conduct inquiries into matters of public importance for example the holding of a Banking Inquiry.

This is also an important Bill in the context of the referendum that the country will face on  abolishing the Seanad in the Autunm. If we are to remove this second chamber from our democracy then we need to be confident in the one chamber that remains – in its ability to act as a check and balance on the government, in its ability to stand as a meaningful and robust parliament, in its ability to execute its role in a confident and competent way. Reforming the committee system is absolutely key to this, hence why this legislation is so important.

Some will be critical of the time it has taken to bring forward this legislation. I have been eager to have this Bill in front of us for debate given my interest in the reform agenda. But with serious changes like these, and in the context of the Inquires referendum defeated in 2011, it is important that the Dail proceeds very deliberately in this matter. Because these changes are real, and they are significant, and the appropriate time must be taken before the laws of this land are changed in this way.

As to the future Banking Inquiry, a note of caution. The powers of the Oireachtas will be limited to an Inquire, Report, Record model. We won’t be able to make findings. But we will be able to have principal actors of the time come and sit and answer questions in a public and transparent manner. And that I believe will be a very important moment for this State in terms of both understanding and learning from the past, and moving on from it.

In early 2012 the Public Accounts Committee set up a sub-committee to do a preliminary analysis and framework for a banking inquiry. I was fortunate to be selected to sit on that sub-committee where we had many meetings to discuss the legal intricacies (and there are many), the sequencing, the unresolved issues, and the gaps in what we think we know.

That report was never debated in the Dáil and this is a deficiency that needs to be addressed. It should be debated on a special sitting day as soon as this legislation is passed so that all Members may consider its proposals, which are comprehensive.

This inquiry, when it begins, will raise some very serious questions for Members elected to Dáil Éireann. Have we reformed this place – will we have reformed this place – sufficiently to prevent such an economic collapse from happening again? This Bill is a piece of that work, and in that regard it is very welcome.

Please click here for my contribution.