Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

I did not realise and I apologise.

I find the Minister's reply disappointing, it is milk and water. I do not share the Government's view that all constitutional questions should go to a constitutional committee of some sort or a constitutional convention. From my experience in this House I regard all references of these matters to other committees or to other bodies as a way used by governments to delay and funk problems. The idea of a constitutional convention, whereas it may be well founded and well motivated, has the potential of being what we have seen in this House for many years, a process of delay and obfuscation. The proposed constitutional convention could well be a very convenient method and vehicle for the Government delaying reform of the Seanad, delaying presidential reform, not doing those things which it pledged to do and then blaming that delay on another body. It is the oldest political trick in the world and I see it as having the potential for delaying the reform of the presidential system and holding that power of patronage in the hands of politicians, whether Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or the Labour Party.

This system desperately needs reform. As a member of the Independent group, I had been pressurised to give my signature here, there and everywhere during the recent presidential election. In the end, I found myself in the extraordinary anomalous position, because of the power which one has and should not have, of signing the nomination paper of somebody who was not my first preference for the presidential election. This is absurd. That type of anomaly should be removed and the opportunity to exploit that anomaly should also be removed.

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