The effectiveness of the legislative and scrutinising roles in the Republic or Ireland. - page 4
Keywords: republic of ireland legislative scrutiny dail eireann td teachta dala
By exploiit on 19/06/2010
Level: A Level (Year 13)
Page Number: 4 of 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
to the point of view of the executive. This one-sidedness can also be argued to exist given that the makeup of each committee corresponds with the makeup of the Dáil itself – the majority party would therefore make up the majority of a committee.
Putting parliamentary questions to ministers and the Taoiseach allows TDs to directly scrutinize the government. These questions can be asked orally during a minister’s question time and require an immediate response. As these questions are televised, ministers must try to answer as elaborately as possible so as to appear competent. In addition to a tabled question, a TD may also be allowed to ask a ‘supplementary question’ for which the minister will not be prepared and this is a particularly useful tool for effectively scrutinizing them. On the other hand, parliamentary questions are often said to be ineffective for a number of reasons. As questions are tabled prior to question time, ministers are able to prepare (or have others prepare) answers, responding to Parliament by simply reading ‘notes’ aloud. As well as this, a minister can choose to speak about a particular issue for a considerable amount of time in order to avoid answering a question tabled to appear later. ‘Plants’ can also limit the effectiveness of oral questioning, with government TDs tabling questions for a minister which will not scrutinize their actions, but will in fact allow them to speak to their own advantage. In addition to oral questions, TDs can submit written questions to a minister which must be responded to within 7 days. These questions are useful in that they can receive a much more detailed answers than orally, although they too are argued to be ineffective as they do not put a minister on the spot but allow them time to prepare a suitable answer. Urgent questions are criticized in much the same way however, they prove useful and effective as the allow TDs to put questions to ministers concerning major developments in their ministry’s area, whether or not a minister’s session is due in the near future.
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