Labour's Joan Burton nodded in agreement.

These four TDs were the only politicians in the Dail chamber. There were two reporters in the media gallery and a handful of schoolchildren in the public viewing area. Slim pickings in a week in which the Oireachtas did little of what it is supposed to do . . . make law.

In almost seven hours of business last Tuesday, no government legislation was discussed by the Dail. The following day, the sitting lasted for almost 10 hours but still no debate on legislation. There was some improvement during the six-hour sitting on Thursday, when four hours were allocated to the Citizen Information Bill and the Child Care (Amendment) Bill.

According to the Department of the Taoiseach, no legislation has been passed into law since 16 July last. That was when the government, in bringing the shutters down on the Oireachtas for the summer months, rushed in six bills in a handful of days. In recent weeks, the business of governing has simply been taken out of Leinster House.

The legislators have done little, if any, lawmaking.

"Usually at the end of a government's life, you'd see ministers pushing to get their legislation through with demands for late sittings and so on, " Labour's Emmet Stagg recalled this weekend. Like many on the opposition benches, he has noticed the lack of legislation coming into the Dail. "I think the government is freeing up its TDs to allow them go home to their constituencies to canvass, " he said.

The government would naturally take issue with this assessment. There are plenty of statistics to defend the coalition's legislative record. Since June 2002, some 164 bills have been enacted. But while a lot may have been done, there is plenty more that could be done. "The government sets the agenda for the Dail. They seem happy enough to have an agenda so long as nothing on it shows them in bad light or allows the opposition to ask hard questions, " Fine Gael's party whip Paul Keogh said.

There are currently 30 separate pieces of legislation on the Order Paper of the Dail and Seanad. Last September, the government promised to published 21 new bills in the current session, including legislation for the National Consumer Agency and the Dublin Transport Authority. Most of these bills will eventually see the light of day during the Christmas recess. It could also be a busy few months in early 2007 with long-promised legislation to be published to regulate charities, widen the remit of the Ombudsman, protect inter-country adoptions and reform the coroners' service. Few of these bills, however, will be law before the general election.

Along with the Dail chamber being a legislation-free zone, many Oireachtas Committees seem to have forgotten their primary role. "These are legislative committees.

They were set up to examine legislation, " said Stagg by way of a reminder. But just look at their work programme last week. Eleven different committees held 16 separate meetings between Tuesday and Thursday. Only one of these meetings considered any of the bills currently before the Dail and Seanad.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Environment Committee spent a couple of hours discussing the Water Service Bill. After that, the closest they came to legislation was the Child Protection Committee which considered its final report with proposals for future law. The Justice Committee spent some time examining EU proposals for inter-country swopping of criminal records.

Most committees were kept busy with lobby group presentations. The Health Committee met three groups making representations on drug use among young children and the substitution of epilepsy-branded drugs with their generic equivalents. It also met HSE staff about nursing homes. The Social Affairs committee heard from the Multiple Sclerosis Society about its pre-budget submission. The Foreign Affairs committee listened to representatives of three different aid organisation about development spending in Vietnam. The content of these meetings may be very worthy, but it is a glorified version of talking-shop politics. Maybe the Finance Committee took the correct approach. It met to agree a work programme for the first two months of next year.

Openly laughed There are whole areas of Irish life in need of legislative reform. The recent High Court case on the status of embryos was a reminder that IVF clinics still remain unregulated.

The Baby Ann case raised the failure to bring forward new adoption laws. The list of bills promised by the government, but which are still on the drafting table, is substantial. But looking at the work being done in Leinster House, it would be hard to find any sense of urgency. On Tuesday afternoon, Labour's Breeda Moynihan-Cronin asked the Taoiseach what legislative proposals were planned to deal with Minister Eamon O Cuiv's u-turn on the naming of Dingle/Daingean Ui Chuis. Ahern remained in his seat . . . openly laughed . . . and admitted, "I do not have a clue." Says it all, really.

PROMISES, PROMISES . . .

Name: CRIMINAL JUSTICE (DNA DATABASE) BILL Purpose: Establish DNA database.

When: 2007 Name: PUBLIC HEALTH BILL Purpose: Prohibit under 16s using sunbeds.

When: 2007 Name: UNLENIENT SENTENCE BILL Purpose: Allow the DPP to appeal against unlenient sentences in District Courts.

When: Not possible to say.

Name: EDUCATION IRELAND BILL Purpose: Regulate Englishlanguage schools.

When: 2007 Name: REGISTER OF PERSONS CONSIDERED UNSAFE TO WORK WITH CHILDREN Purpose: Child protection measure.

When: Not possible to say.

Name: EMPLOYMENT AGENCY BILL Purpose: Regulate employment agencies When: 2007 Name: ENFORCEMENT OF FINES BILL Purpose: To end imprisonment for inability to pay "nes When: Not possible to say.

Kevin Rafter