Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes.

I wish to address certain points since the Minister of State responsible for Dáil reform is in the Chamber. He outlined some of the reforms introduced and while some of them are welcome, including publishing the heads of Bills and the pre-legislative phase, and certainly work well, others have been an abject failure. For example, when I first came into the Chamber, as an Opposition spokesperson, I was able to ask a Minister ten or 11 questions at Question Time. Now I would be lucky to put two or three every five weeks. That is not progressive; it is a regressive reform that the Government has implemented.

I have listened to some of the contributions on Seanad reform and a common theme is how the Seanad is elitist. This is not to say Members of the Seanad are elitist as individuals, but the system of electing them could certainly be described as such. Only recently there was a Seanad by-election in which one candidate, whom we had nominated, was unable to vote for herself because she lived on the wrong side of the Border. That is elitist. Some people because they are graduates or have an academic qualification, as Deputy Patrick O'Donovan stated, have greater rights than others who perhaps slogged hard for many years to gain a trade. That is not fair and is elitist. We need to subtly separate the argument that the Seanad is elitist from the perception that we are referring to the individuals who serve in it. They are not elitist, but the system used to elect them certainly is.

One of the first things we should do is to give the Seanad some respect. Regardless of whether people admit it, there are many Members in this Chamber who have little respect for the role played by the Seanad. We need only reflect on the by-election last week when several Members of this House did not bother to cast a vote to fill the position. It is not as if they had to trudge to a polling booth in the rain. They only had to sign a bloody form on the kitchen table, put it in an envelope and send it back. They had so little respect for the Seanad that they were not even able to do that much. Those of us who are Members of this House should start by respecting the other House. How can we expect the public to respect an institution when certain Members of this House and members of the Government do not? That much was evident from the scam pulled by Fine Gael in the candidate nominated. No respect was shown to the other House in that case.

There are many fine Senators in the Upper House. I sit on committees with some of them. They are articulate and can make concise well thought out contributions, but when it comes to legislation, they do not have the opportunity to debate points with a Minister on Committee Stage. They can debate in the Seanad, but if we are discussing real reform, let us start by at least giving the other House some respect.

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