Michael McCarthy (Labour)

The Minister should recognise this. The electorate for the Upper House largely consists of members of local authorities. Those who went through the rigours of meeting councillors around the country prior to the election picked up on a lot of issues. There was a sense that those contesting the Seanad election might be in a position to improve local government.

A particular issue was severance for long serving members, which goes back many years. Some retiring members of local authorities have served for up to 30 and 40 years. It is unfortunate that their length of service will not be recognised under the gratuity scheme. That brings home the role that local government plays across the country. This is expected to be a superior form of local democracy and it is incumbent that this is looked at in greater detail before the legislation goes through.

There has been much recent talk about the constitutionality of abolishing the dual mandate. It was interesting that yesterday, not many miles from this House, a meeting was attended by a noted senior counsel. He was asked for a legal opinion on whether a Deputy, who intends to take this matter to the Supreme Court if it leaves both Houses successfully, had a chance of testing its constitutionality. The senior counsel thought that the Deputy in question stood a good chance.