Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

Was it really in our interest to be the one EU state to reject Nice? This shows that participation in political life must be encouraged.

Politics itself will become more interesting and more respected, and people will vote in bigger numbers and use the electoral register, when political parties are more clearly defined and identified by their distinctive ethos. Fine Gael will be identified as Christian democrats, Fianna Fáil as republicans, Labour as social democratic and socialist and the Green Party as environmentalists. Each would explain what their distinctive ethos means. Quite literally, in today's fudged party politics, someone could leave the Progressive Democrats in the morning and join the Irish Socialist Party and justify it on some pragmatic point.

In the case of my own political party, I have come to the belief over a number of years that we should embrace at home the mainstream Christian democratic tradition that we do in Europe. We should seek support of 30% of the electorate, not 50%, 60% or 70%. Those who do not subscribe to our beliefs should be in no doubt that we are not the people to vote for; similarly, other parties should define themselves in terms of ethos. That is what will turn the electorate out.

This does not mean we cannot respect each other's ethos and work with each other. In the European Parliament, for example, we have had a socialist president for the first two and a half years of the life of this Parliament and we now have a Christian democrat president for the second two and a half years through power sharing. As nobody has a majority we must work with each other, respecting diversity.

If a person wants to buy a hamburger, he or she can go to McDonalds, Supermacs or Eddie Rockets. A person cannot buy a burger in a hardware shop. Political parties must not be like retail outlets where almost anything can be purchased. Each party should have conviction about their stock in trade, but an even stronger conviction about what is not.

We do not just need a new kind of Ireland; we need a new Ireland that is kind. This would be an Ireland which fully embraces its responsibilities, for example, to the developing world. Given our own recent history of famine, we have the authority to give leadership. We could create a template to which other countries, when they ask who they should emulate, can turn. We should twin with the developing world our hospitals, Departments, local authorities, businesses, trade unions, educators and cultural leaders. We should legislate to meet the 0.7% of GNP contribution to the developing world as promised and seek to exceed it, as some other EU states have done.

The reason people are in prison or homeless and the cause of the widow should be high on our agenda. We should not simply prioritise those who turn out to vote in big numbers. Is an Ireland that fails to promote respect, tolerance, encouragement of openness and debate, perhaps an Ireland with a harshness of criticism which is no longer tempered by charity, contributing to a hopelessness in society where suicide thrives?

In a just and fair society, would we not respect the mighty contribution that different religious traditions have given and continue to give? There can indeed be unity in diversity, as we are often reminded about the European ideal. That unity in diversity can start at home in a new kind of Ireland.

The challenge of forging a new kind of Ireland is not one we should or can long finger. At a time of prosperity such as now, choices can be made and transitions can be smoothed. If we leave this work until a time of economic downturn, the debate could too easily become a blame game or witch hunt where the vulnerable, the weak and the new suffer.

In the next nine years as we prepare for the centenary of the 1916 Rising, let us commit ourselves to building a better Ireland that is kinder, gentler, more inclusive and one in which all the children of the nation are truly cherished.

I appreciate the opportunity to put those words on the record. I may have strayed somewhat from the main content of the Bill but I wanted to take what may be my last opportunity in the current Dáil to put such comments on record. It is important that the electoral register is not only inclusive but up to date. We all hate to hear on election day somebody saying that he or she had been on the register for so many years but was not on it on that particular day, meaning he or she could not vote. It does not matter if the person would vote for us or not, the omission from the register is terrible.

Even on election day a District Court judge or similar official should be in residence so that he or she could order somebody to be put on the register of electors, with a subsequent Garda check to ensure the person did not vote twice. Nobody should be deprived of his or her vote.

More important than the right of people to vote is the reason they will vote. I hope some of the comments made here today will contribute to a debate on that reasoning.

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