Agreement across all parties is unusual in our highly partisan political system. But a motion drawn up establishing a subcommittee on Dáil reform is expected to be approved by every party and most of the Independent TDs.

That consensus might not last long beyond the excitement of the first day at Leinster House. Yet it demonstrates that right across the political spectrum there is a realisation that the way parliament works needs to be changed.

The committee on reform is expected to be announced today, and will begin its work next week. It will have 14 members, drawn from all parties and Independents in the Dáil, and chaired by the new Ceann Comhairle. It will report to the Dáil on April 6th, when it will present an interim report.

Statements on Dáil reform will also be taken that day, and it is likely that changes will be made to Dáil rules after that.

All parties and TDs can make submissions to the committee. Fine Gael is likely to publish its submission, drawn up by Dublin TD Eoghan Murphy, today.

Fianna Fáil published a document on Dáil reform in 2013 (updated last year) and commitments to Dáil reform also appeared in its manifesto.

Other parties and Independents have also proposed a wide range of reforms. It is central, for example, to the principles espoused by Shane Ross and the Independent Alliance group of TDs.

The first changes discussed by the committee are likely to be limited, although significant to the way parliament works.

There are likely to be proposals for a business committee to run the affairs of the House, restriction on the use of guillotines, reform of standing orders governing speaking rights and ministerial questions.

Fianna Fáil's proposals are likely to include an Oireachtas budget office which would cost and evaluate the taxation and spending plans of government and opposition alike. Other proposals are likely to be made in the coming days.

Agreed motion

Yesterday’s agreed motion came after days of behind- the-scenes negotiating between Government Buildings and the parties. The initial focus is likely to be on the Dáil’s standing orders, though some committee members are sure to want to extend that remit.

However, the biggest change – one which cannot be wrought by standing orders alone – is for government to submit itself to the authority of the Dáil.

That is as much about the culture of an exceedingly strong executive and a weak parliament which has previously been a characteristic of our system as it is about procedural reforms.

It will also be harder to change once a government takes office as governments tend to be less committed to transparency and accountability, which can become most inconvenient to those in power, whoever they are.

That is why agreeing on reforms before a government takes office represents an unusual opportunity.

So those in favour of political reform will be encouraged by the announcement yesterday, and will watch the work of the subcommittee closely.

However, Dáil reform is only a part of the wider agenda of political reform that has been a constant in political debate since the economic crash illustrated the failures of our political system.

All parties talked a lot of political reform during the general election campaign, and indeed, for the years preceding it. It has entered the conventional wisdom that Fine Gael and Labour, despite promises of a "democratic revolution", were punished by voters at the last election in part due to their failure to implement reform of the political system.

Political system

While it is simply not true to say that the outgoing Coalition implemented no significant reforms, it is also clear that a significant appetite for reform of the political system still exists.

The truth is that political reform – changing the way we do politics – is something on which there are deeply conflicting ideas across the political spectrum. Just look around the new Dáil for evidence: it has more members than ever before who are convinced that our society and its political institutions need a fundamental reordering – a rupture with the past. Yet its majority – Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour, many of the Independents – are in favour of reform rather than revolution.

In some ways that is the biggest division in Irish politics.

Reformed or not, the Dáil will be the stage on which those divisions are played out in the coming months. Political reform will be just one of the battlegrounds.