The government’s announcement of a further suite of Dáil reforms today is welcome and demonstrates a key point about this government: that it is a reforming government.

Reform of Dáil Éireann has been a key priority of mine as an elected TD, and I believe that being a member of the government backbenches places a particular responsibility on my colleagues and I to drive the reform programme through.

In March of this year I produced a detailed pamphlet outlining some simple ideas to radically improve the performance of our parliament – you can read the pamphlet here.

Some of the improvements announced today include: debating committee reports in the Dáil chamber, expanding the current Oireachtas committee pre-legislative stage, introducing a specific week annually to scrutinise departmental objectives for the coming year, improvements to ministerial question time, and greater scrutiny of EU matters.

These changes will significantly change the operation of Dáil Éireann and the work that its TDs do on your behalf.

Unfortunately what you won’t see mentioned is any loosening of the Whip System, or the introduction of a budgetary scrutiny committee, similar to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office in the US, to assist Dáil members in considering budgetary matters independently on a year-round basis. Nor is there any mention of changes to the Office of Ceann Comhairle as put forward recently be the Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party, Charlie Flanagan TD.

The good fight continues!

For details of the changes announced today, click here (Dáil Reform Briefing Document) and here (Reform Progress Report).