Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

Deputy McDonald was referring to the campaign of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and other groups to participate in the convention. I agree with some of the points made by the groups, which call themselves Hear Our Voices, but I do not agree that they should be members of the convention. To include civic society groups in the membership would distort the convention in terms of it being representative. Civic society groups are not necessarily representative. They do not have a democratic mandate and there is also the issue of what groups one should and should not include. I agree that their input and expertise should be used by the convention. I agree with the points they have made, particularly with the point that the time for debating before setting up this convention is too short, especially in the Dáil.

There is much in our Constitution that we should protect and preserve. It is not necessarily a regressive thing to be a conservative when it comes to conserving progressive things that have been achieved in the past. There is much that is good in our Constitution. People fought for the rights enshrined therein and we should not mess with them. We should be very careful about what rights we would take away in the name of so-called political reform.

I do not have a problem with the convention examining our electoral system but it should be noted that our system is the most democratic. I will fight until my dying day to protect PR-STV, which I hope will not be changed by the convention.

I fully agree that it is very wrong that the convention's agenda does not include the issue of the Seanad. Our Constitution is based on a bicameral system involving the Dáil and Seanad, and also the President and Legislature. It is similar to the American constitution. At least a couple of constitutions are modelled on the Irish one, including the Indian one. One cannot consider the Dáil in isolation from the Seanad, nor can one consider the presidency in isolation from the Seanad. The problem is that this Government will never consider Seanad reform, only the all-or-nothing question of whether to abolish it. That is a mistake.

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