Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

The only personal remark I want to make is to wish the Minister for Finance a speedy and rapid return to full health.

In the short time available I wish to address a fundamental issue. I speak as a political scientist; I am not a lawyer. If at 8.30 p.m. tomorrow Members vote down the Labour Party motion and the Bill at the heart of it, they will do a terrible disservice to this Parliament. I am in a position to know about parliament and its powers. This is an incredibly important moment. What we are deciding to do is a little less than what the Labour Party proposes, which it does on the basis of the history of its party founded in 1912, that chose parliament as one aspect of politics that needed to be treated with respect and that should be used in a transparent and public way. It exercised a trust that there were was no issue that could not and should not be discussed in parliament. My first fundamental assertion in favour of the Labour Party motion is that there should be no aspect or administration of policy that is above parliament, from which parliament should be excluded or of which it should not be the prime agency.

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