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Pringle: There’s something wrong with a system that rushes bills through each year before recess
- Updated: 21st June 2024
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, said there is something wrong with a system that sees legislation regularly rushed through the Dáil in the lead-up to Oireachtas recesses.
Deputy Pringle said: “Pre-legislative scrutiny and debate should be treated as significant parts of the legislative process. However, in the lead-up to Oireachtas recesses every year, we see bills rushed through the Dáil without allowing time for proper scrutiny or debate. This is wrong and shows great disrespect to the Oireachtas.”
Speaking at the the Joint Committee on Justice meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Pringle said: “There definitely seems to be something wrong with how the system works, and how the legislative process works, if most legislation comes through in July and December, when there is the least time to debate and discuss them, but I believe that is planned rather than an accident.”
The deputy said that the amount of legislation that goes through the Dáil in July and December, in the lead-up to Oireachtas recesses, “goes through the roof. And the one coincidence in all those times is that there’s no time.” Committee stages and consideration stages have also been curtailed, he said.
The deputy raised the issue during a briefing for the committee on the general scheme of the Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024.
Deputy Pringle said: “In fairness, the bill contains about four or five different aspects, and you’re saying that’s the miscellaneous-type bill. Fair enough. But it’s rolled in here now and now we’re told it’s going to be rushed through legislative scrutiny,” adding, “This happens every year by every department.”
Deputy Pringle said: “It always seems that these important issues come up in time for the legislative process in July, when everything is chock-a-block and everything is rushed through.” He called the rush of legislation “worrying”.
The deputy has raised the issue of rushed legislation and the curtailing of scrutiny a number of times in the Dáil, most recently on Tuesday, during the Dáil debate on the EU migration pact.
Addressing the Dáil during Tuesday’s debate, Deputy Pringle said he believed the committee had been curtailed in its hearings in relation to the pact, “because the Government was going to bring this in before the European elections, which it failed to do. But we were stopped, we were ended at one hearing, and that was wrong as well.”
