Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----and the ideas. I was taken by that contribution because that goes to the heart of what democracy is about - alternative voices, debates, competing opinions.

There is too much uniformity here. We as a political party need to change as well; I am not saying otherwise. Of course we have to change. We go forward in a spirit, in the aftermath of the collapse, of having learned lessons from the crisis. It is a fact that this Parliament did not discuss the financial world after it had set up its regulatory infrastructure eight or nine years ago - the financial authority, the new Central Bank, etc. Parliament did not actually start debating it until it had imploded. In between, there were no debates. When they debated the new financial regulatory authority, the preponderance of the debate was about consumer issues, not prudential risks or other more important issues pertaining to the euro. We desperately need alternative voices.

To cut to the chase, the principle of this Bill is to democratise the franchise. It is to give the citizen a say in electing Senators.

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