merrion street

 Wednesday 11th Janaury, 2012

The Government Chief Whip, Minister Paul Kehoe T.D., today announced the Legislative Programme for the Spring Parliamentary session of 2012.

Speaking following this morning’s cabinet meeting Minister Kehoe said:

“When Fine Gael and Labour took office last March they did so on the basis of an ambitious Programme for Government which committed the new Government to making progress in a number of areas neglected by previous administrations. The Legislative Programme approved today at the Cabinet will see progress made in a number of these areas.

In the next Dáil term the Government’s main focus must be on economic recovery and job creation and this will see the publication of legislation concerning the implementation of the Budget, measures to help people with personal debt and support for businesses.

Progress will also continue to be made in a number of other areas with the introduction of legislation on Civil Defence reform, child protection, reform of the Health services, updating the law on mental capacity, new animal welfare laws and the removal of obsolete Acts passed before independence in 1922 from the Statute book. Preparations are also underway for referendums on Children’s Rights and the Abolition of the Seanad.

In just 10 months in office 46 Bills have been published and 35 Acts of the Oireachtas passed by this Government.   

The number of Dáil sitting days has been increased (9th March 2011- December 2011 - 99 sitting days compared with 9th March 2010- December 2010 - 79 sitting days) and we are making progress towards the Government’s commitment to increasing the Dáil sitting days by 50%. These extra Dáil sitting days have allowed the Dáil to increase its workload.

The Legislative Programme published today will see the Government continue to implement more and more of our Programme for Government commitments.

Ends