Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the spring of 2011, the Taoiseach made a firm commitment to the Irish people that he would undertake a democratic revolution and he was ably abetted by the then Tánaiste in that firm commitment. I put it to the Taoiseach that he has fundamentally broken that pledge the Irish people and in doing so, he has done enormous damage to the Irish body politic, and we are seeing a type of dramatic change in political attitudes in the country that arise from that. The Taoiseach promised a referendum to reform the Seanad. He stated, when he lost that referendum, that he accepted the outcome of it but the only proposal with which he has come forward in the interim is to extend the franchise for third level seats. Has he put a costing on that initiative?

Today the Taoiseach stated he would set up a working party and to some extent, I welcome that. However, he excluded reform of the Seanad from consideration of the Constitutional Convention. I congratulate the Taoiseach on the work of the Constitutional Convention. It did good work but it was prevented from looking at this matter. Will he give time for some element of public consultation on what sort of reform of the Seanad should take place?

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