The rise of parliament? The emergence of the private members’ bill as a tool of legislators

Historically, PMBs in the Irish parliament were few in number, both in terms of those published and those enacted. It was believed they were having little impact on the political system. Something has been changing in recent years, and in this paper, we examine the rise of PMBs as a tool of legislators since 2011. Their impact beyond parliament is the main focus of the paper. Two types of effect are considered, what we call policy and publicity, and both relate to two of the primary goals of political actors, namely policy and votes. The policy effects considered are how PMBs can be used both to promote a policy area and to highlight policy priorities. Two forms of publicity effects are considered, namely the impact of PMBs on the media coverage of their sponsors and also their electoral impact. We find that media coverage of an issue more than doubles once it is the subject of a PMB, but that it does little to promote the policy preferences of an individual parliamentarian. We also show that PMB activity is associated with greater media coverage for their sponsors and that it has a significant impact on their vote.