Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be voting in favour of abolishing the Seanad. If this Bill passes, with the help of my vote, I will certainly be voting in the referendum to abolish it. I have heard many saying that people should be given more of a choice, that it should not just be a straight choice between abolition or keeping it the way it is. I would agree with that point of view but if I was given that option, I would vote for abolition anyway because I have full confidence in the people of Ireland and the Dáil system which allows ordinary people to go out and vote for other ordinary people to get into this House. If engineers or computer programmers want to be represented in this House, let them go out and run for election. This is not an exclusive club. If one goes out and burns a hole in one's shoe leather, listens to people, knocks on doors and tells people one's ideas, they vote for one and one gets in here. I really do not see any problem with the system if we get rid of the Seanad. I do not think anyone would be left out and if people feel that is the case, they should wake up to the fact that anyone can run for election. It is a challenge but one can do it.

I find it interesting to see some of the characters that are involved in trying to keep the Seanad, such as the former Minister, Michael McDowell of Democracy Now. I suggest that group should change its name "Democracy When it Suits", because it seems he is interested in democracy one minute and is not interested in it the next. If he wants to represent the people, let him go out and look for votes. He got his answer the last time and I would imagine he would get the same answer again because people have not forgotten the damage he did to this country. I must say that I am delighted that he is on that side of the campaign. Most of the people I have spoken to in Roscommon have said that any thoughts of voting to keep the Seanad are now gone out the window because of his involvement. It is good, in that sense. I am glad to see he is finally achieving something.

Some people have argued that if we did not have the Seanad, we would not have brilliant people like David Norris in politics. However, I believe that if David Norris ran in an election for the Dáil he would be elected. I would vote for him if I was in his constituency because he has proved himself to be an excellent parliamentarian and an excellent contributor to debates. I do not think anyone should be afraid of that.

The down side of abolition is the belief that there will be less oversight because the people in the remaining House, the Dáil, just would not have the time to scrutinise all of the legislation properly. However, there is a way in which we would have the time and that is if people were not poking their noses in a failed local government system all of the time. I am sad to say that the reforms being suggested for local government will not do it. I had six years experience in local government but the reforms being proposed are very disappointing. I do not think the Seanad provided much accountability anyway but if we are going to take away even a thin layer of accountability, we need to put something else in its place. The biggest benefit of having proper local government would be that we could spend every last minute of our time in here crossing the t's and dotting the i's on legislation. I must be honest and say that if we had proper local government, I probably would not be here anyway. I would prefer to be in local government with real power to help local communities and to use the money that is there at a local level to benefit those communities. There would then be a better selection of people who would come in here who might be more suited to scrutinising legislation.

I will be voting for the Bill before us and will be voting to get rid of the Seanad. I will be then be hoping that the rest will be reformed and while the news is not good on that front, I am certainly not changing my view on the Seanad because of that.

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