Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Bill and support its objective. The majority of judges took a voluntary cut in line with what was requested, but our party is supporting the legislation. The Bill's contents have been examined and dealt with by many other speakers. The Bill before us should be seen in the context of what the new Government promised to do during the election campaign some seven months ago. This Bill was promised as part of six separate referenda that Fine Gael said it would introduce as part of a super Constitution day. That is what they called it back in February, but it is a bit like the 100,000 jobs that were promised, as well as the five point plan. I have not heard the Minister, Deputy Shatter, or any of his colleagues refer to the super Constitution day since 25 February.

The promised referenda included one to abolish the Seanad and another to reduce the President's term of office from seven to five years, which would have been appropriate to hold alongside the presidential election. Another proposed referendum was to give the Dáil powers to cut judges' pay, which we are now discussing. Yet another referendum was to give Oireachtas committees stronger powers of investigation, which is scheduled to take place on the same day as the presidential election. In addition, a referendum was promised to put the Office of the Ombudsman on a constitutional footing. Those six referenda were promised as part of the super Constitution day, but some of them have been forgotten.

On 27 October, the date for the presidential election, these two referenda will also be held. Although welcome, they were supposed to be part of something very separate. I ask the Minister to outline where the promised super Constitution day now stands. The Government appears to have taken a different tack since taking office by deciding to hold two referenda, rather than six. For example, we were supposed to have a referendum on children's rights. As his party's spokesman on children in the previous Dáil, the Minister knows that such a referendum is of the utmost importance. In Opposition, he regularly extolled the necessity for an immediate date to be set for that referendum. When Fine Gael announced its super Constitution day, Deputy Charles Flanagan, who took over from the Minister as the party's spokesperson on children, said that the children's rights referendum would take place on the same day as the presidential election. Just six months ago, Deputy Charles Flanagan, rightly, said:

every day that goes by without a referendum acknowledging the voice of children in the Constitution is a poor day for children, leaving them in a position of great vulnerability and hardship. So this will be a priority.

That was another promise that the Minister, Deputy Shatter, reneged upon in line with many of the other things he has done.

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