Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The legislation would put a check on Government power through scrutinising national and EU legislation. It would broaden representation and provide a voice for groups which have not been heard in the Dáil or Seanad. I would like people to understand what the legislation is about. It would provide a vote to all the people of Ireland for the Seanad by breaking down the constituencies according to the panels specifically provided for in the Constitution. We are working within the Constitution to get the maximum amount of change.

Unless we have another referendum the Taoiseach's nominees must be kept. This week I posed a question which falls under the remit of the Minister, Deputy Shatter. The legislation allows for representation from minority groups. These include groups such as people who have come to Ireland from other countries, the Traveller community and the disability sector. Can one imagine the Minister standing over putting children of the Traveller community on PULSE if it had representatives in Seanad Eireann? One reason the Minister and the people under him have been doing this is because they know these people do not have a voice here. If they had a voice here, as they would under this legislation, a Minister would not allow children as young as 16 days of age to be put on the Garda PULSE system. This reflects on the Department of Justice and Equality also.

The legislation provides for a gender quota of 40%. Most people believe this is needed and everybody should subscribe to it. There must be a mechanism whereby people, as opposed to a financial contribution or a nomination by a party, would allow individuals to be nominated to run in the election.

I am disappointed with the Government's response, but it is no surprise. It could not bully the people into the abolition of the Seanad and now it will not accept any reform proposals. Its proposal was clearly contemptuous of the Oireachtas, and now it will not even allow a modicum of reasonable reform to take place.

The legislation has tremendous approaches in it and I support it. We should be able to work with the proposals of Senators Quinn, Zappone and Crown on these issues. They have come forward with very well thought out proposals, many of which could be incorporated into the Bill on Committee Stage.

Often on Second Stage Ministers state they will propose amendments on Committee Stage. This is what we have proposed, but the Government has rejected this approach. It states unless a Bill is perfect on the day it is published it should not be passed at all. This Bill has been rejected. There are matters which could be teased out on Committee Stage, and the Government knows they should be teased out, but it will refuse to allow the legislation go to Committee Stage because it does not want everybody in the Oireachtas to have an input into it in case they feel it was good legislation. When we published the Bill we did not state it was absolutely perfect, we stated it was a damn good shot at political reform and we wanted to work with everybody in the Chamber on Committee and Report Stages and everybody in the Seanad. We also wanted hearings with members of the public invited to come before committees.

The Government is cutting off the Bill at the pass. This is a new form of guillotine. The legislation establishing Irish Water was guillotined on Report Stage, but when the Opposition introduces a Bill to bring about real political reform it is guillotined on Second Stage and it is not allowed go to Committee or Report Stages or to the Seanad. This legislation should be debated through the full and proper mechanisms of the House but we have seen a new guillotine at this early stage. We will not even have a debate and it will not be guillotined later. I am disappointed not only with members of the Government, whom I expect to follow the line. The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, took it on the chin and he should have responded and not ignored the people. He should have agreed to a level of political reform. I am also disappointed Sinn Féin opposes political reform allowed under the Constitution and which can be done. I would have welcomed a contribution from its members in which they stated they would discuss, tease out and try to improve the legislation on Committee and Report Stages, but they have sided with the Government because they are afraid of real political reform, just as the Government is.

See this speech in context