Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. One of the things I have discovered over the years is that we cannot ask questions in the House about anything that comes under the remit of the courts. We used to be able to ask questions about these issues in the House. It can be helpful, because we as Oireachtas Members do not have anywhere else to go, except to the Department of Justice, which is subject to the courts, in terms of its responses. I just wonder. There has been a practice in some courts – in the family law courts, which I know is not the Minister of State's brief - but there is a tendency to dismiss the opinions of people before the court in favour of expert witnesses. I do not accept that. I think it has caused a lot of trauma for people. As the Minister proposes to reform that area, there is obviously a need for reform. In general, it is particularly difficult for backbenchers to access information that would be of benefit to the public if they could get the information through the normal channels that are open to backbenchers or frontbenchers either for that matter by way of parliamentary question. Given that the Vote originates in the same quarter – the State pays the bills in all cases – I do not say it is in every case, but in cases where there is contention from different sides on particular issues, in the past I have found it very easy to table a parliamentary question and get an answer, which might not be the answer I wanted. It might be a terse answer or a cryptic one. It might be telling me on the one hand that this is a matter for the courts and they cannot answer it, etc., but at the same time, action was taken to remedy the situation referred to, notwithstanding the foregoing. I just wanted to bring that to the attention of this committee.

For instance, there is a presumption on the part of the powers that be whatever they be and wherever they may be - the Chairman referred to that in and oblique way - and there is always a tendency to withhold information that could and should be available. I have seen many situations where questions were raised and were deemed out of order by the Questions Office or whatever on the basis that it was not the responsibility of someone and was not accessible from the point of view of the Dáil or the Seanad for that matter. The worrying part would be that something could be in need of attention, which could later come to public light and public scrutiny, which if dealt with in the first place when first raised would not have become a problem at all and certainly not at the magnitude that it ultimately came to be.

I have a concern about that throughout the system as a person who puts down the odd parliamentary question. The territory is being eroded gradually such that we have less access to gaining an answer because of the rules which we do not make but somebody makes. Certainly, they were not run past the Members of the House. At a later stage when a crisis arises in something, whether it was raised previously or an attempt was made to raise it previously but it could not be answered, the public will ask why it was not allowable at the time. I think that is a weakness in the system. I believe it creates problems for Ministers and I know it creates problems for backbenchers. We are a threatened species at present and more threatened as time goes by. Openness and transparency are enormously beneficial in those kinds of situations where the person with responsibility and in situcan avail of the opportunity to give their side of the story that could likely become a crucial part of some other issue at some time in the future.

I recently asked a question which was raised with me. I thought there was something that was really wrong and should not be happening. I put down the question and the question was refused, but the issues I raised were immediately remedied. I will not speculate as to what happened there but I have a fairly good idea it was felt that somebody should answer the question otherwise it could become very serious at a later stage and the axe would fall in all directions indiscriminately.