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THE GOVERNMENT’S MUCH-vaunted Dáil reforms come into effect from this week with TDs to sit from 9.30am on Wednesday and Thursday as well as sitting this Friday.
Though the plans were announced back in September a change to standing orders has meant the reforms have taken until now to be implemented fully.
While the Dáil does not reconvene after its week-long recess until 2pm today the changes will be noticeable from tomorrow when business begins at 9.30am with questions to Minister for Defence Alan Shatter.
Discussion will also begin on the Finance Bill – which implements many of the taxation measures announced in the Budget – at 10.45am.
One of the most significant changes will see the showpiece event of the Dáil week, Leaders’ Questions, pushed to 12 noon on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The Taoiseach will take questions from opposition leaders at the usual 3.15pm time on Tuesdays as has been the case up to now.
The Dáil also sits this Friday and should do so again before the end of November with the government pledging to sit on a Friday every fortnight to deal with committee reports and private members’ legislation i.e. bills not proposed by the government.
The changes mean that the sitting time in the chamber will increase from 23 hours to 28 hours per week and there will be two extra hours to debate actual legislation.
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A 28 hour week? God bless the poor creatures.
God love them must be tough going
And 90% of the seats will still be empty!
Headline all wrong ! Should read TD’s. will sit earlier and for longer ‘ doing nothing’ from this week
And they will get paid !
You have to wonder why such a small amount of people run in general elections here. 566 people ran last time out of more than 3 million eligible.
Seems a widely held view that being a politician is the best job ever with the short work week and the great wages and expenses.
Why do so few people run for the 166 best jobs in the country?
It’s 28 hours per week sitting time. A TDs job is much more than that though. Meeting constituents, holding clinics, attending committees, phoning anyone and everyone, dealing with internal party affairs, travelling up and down the country, spending a few nights a week away from home, even fixing potholes….. I would be fairly sure 28 hours a week doesn’t come close to covering the amount of work most TDs do in an average week (including the ones when the Dail isn’t sitting). Then again, never let the facts in the way of a good rant.
The Dail Bar will do well this week.
On the other hand the taxpayer wont do that well this week.
Clock in, go to bar.go to sponsored apartment for a bit of kip, run back in to vote via party whip, a few in the bar….clock out. Day down
Exactly…anytime you see the kip there’s only a handful of parasites..ahem…sorry politicians who are present. We would get more value out of these useless gombeens if they were out filling potholes or picking up rubbish on the streets.
And we pay these fools how much per hour? Ridiculous sum of money for wages and “expenses” while they preach that a 28 hour week is a major reform.
Cut the money to a normal wage ,then we will care!
Could you explain sitting to Tom Barry to avoid any unnecessary embarrassment. Thanks.
Just because the place is open for business doesnt mean that any of them will turn up.
Merkel, must have been on to Kenny to put a bit of an effort in to please the peasants before he is off to Europe
Presumably it’s sit in the Dail for 28 hours, committee meetings and the like are extra?
A lot of committee meetings etc take place at the same time as the Dáil is sitting, with breaks in committee meetings to allow members to go and vote.
This idea that all 166 deputies should be sitting listening to the debate in the Dáil for the whole 28 hours per week is unwarranted. Most of the speeches made by Deputies in the chamber are just polemics on “my constituency” and “my constituents”.
Haha. and do what? Produce more methane gas into the chamber?
It isn’t the length of time they work at all that’s the problem. It’s the quality of TD, the fact that there are too many of them. And the fact that the party political system we have has given us thundering mediocrities like Enda the school marm Kenny,, that the real problem. Fix all that first.
if they sit for longer does that give them more time to make decisions?…..if so im totally against this plan
OMG the poor TD’s they have to sit for 28 hrs a week. Wheelchair users have to sit all week and be ripped off by these TD’s !
Sitting or standing nothing productive gets done to sort the state of the country!!
Genuine credit where credit is due. 28 hours a week is a relatively lengthy sitting for the legislature of a small country. And that’s in addition to committees, where the work actually gets done. As well as whatever scurrilous constituency work the TDs do to get re-elected. They’re not lazy.
Am I bonkers or Isn’t Alan Shatter Minister for Justice? Has there been a reshuffle I don’t know about? Or is it the fact that he’s always under attack (perhaps justifiably) that he’s now being called Minister for Defence?
He’s both as far as I know.
Heroes
Doesn’t matter how long they sit as they have given all Oir red cents to the troika (5 point plan) unless they plan to take up magic & make money out of nothing.
They will probably take more time off for sitting longer and achieve less, If the can.
Hey that signing in allowance won’t spend itself!
Should be the norm for them what are these idiots been paid for to get this country back into order maby they need pay cuts like the rest of us
Should we have a referendum on cutting TDs. by 50% and all expenses to be on paid on genuine reciepts.
have your say