Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We hear today that the economic management council, consisting of three Ministers - Deputies Noonan, Gilmore, Howlin - and the Taoiseach, will decide the budget and inform the Cabinet what they have decided. Deputies will then line up as lobby fodder to vote it through. If this is what passes for democracy in the 21st century, then I wonder what the Taoiseach thinks an oligarchy would look like. It seems that he is committed to having an anaemic and sickly form of democracy in this country. When we learn that he is not willing to agree to a live televised debate on the abolition of the Seanad - a major reform of our constitutional apparatus and our democratic system - I wonder even more. Do we have to wait for another party dinner to find out what he has planned for his next reform of politics in this country?

Let us consider the claims the Government has put forward so far in its campaign to abolish the Seanad. The claim that abolition would save €20 million is demonstrably a lie. The self-serving attempted bribe that we would have fewer politicians means in reality that the Government would have fewer people to bully and to whip into line. If we consider these claims, then I am not one bit surprised that the Taoiseach is running scared of any debate, because he would not have the benefit of his handlers to protect him from scrutiny. It is better for him to make decisions behind closed doors in small, unaccountable groups, but that should make us very concerned about the future of our democracy and about the outcome of this referendum.

I call on the Leader to ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to attend this House and explain the circumstances surrounding a story in The Connacht Tribune by Declan Tierney on 28 August. It stated that the EU Committee on Petitions wrote to the Minister, informing him that the west and north west of this country have not benefitted from available funding for major infrastructural projects and regional development as a whole. The EU had to take the unprecedented step of writing to the Irish Government to cajole it into applying for millions of euro in development funds that it has so far failed to seek for the west, and this is a major scandal and beggars belief. It would appear that the committee informed the Minister that there is funding for the construction of the western rail corridor if the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport would only apply for it. The committee has even offered to travel here on a fact finding mission to help identify projects for consideration. It seems to me that there is a major lack of stewardship here. The committee is concerned about balanced regional development and that it must inquire as to why funding for the west is not being sought is really remarkable. That was the view of Mr. Tierney in The Connacht Tribune and I agree with him. It is amazing that an EU committee would have to browbeat an Irish Government Department into applying for available funding, given all the challenges that this country faces. I would be grateful if the Leader asked the Minister to come in here and explain the lack of applications for the west, such that we may need visitors from the EU to help us do what we should be doing anyway.