David Norris (Independent)

There is something incestuous in it, not only because some wanted to appoint their spouses or relations but also because in the nature of things and the way the Seanad is composed, exactly as has been pointed out by Senator Fitzgerald and others, councillors are the electorate for the Senators. That tends to create a distortion because of the intrusion of sometimes important but also quite petty local affairs into the business of the national Parliament. That is not a good idea because it tends to bring matters to a fairly parochial level, which is regrettable.

This is an argument for looking at further local government reform and at further Seanad reform as well. When dealing with Seanad reform, we should not only look at the easy target of the university seats which have between 40,000 and 120,000 voters who are ordinary citizens. Let us look at the whole Seanad and at whether only councillors should elect Senators. It was interesting to hear Senator Fitzgerald say he was the voice of the councillors. That is admirable in its way, but I prefer in a Republic to be the voice of the people on all sides. Those holding university seats accept this needs to be broadened, but we cannot really deal with regenerating the whole House by simply looking at those six seats. It must be much broader. The link, which has sometimes served us well, between the Seanad constituencies and the councillors should be looked at.