Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

It is worth noting that the average length of the career of a politician at national level is only 11 years. I know the Minister of State comes from a very distinguished family. His grandfather, father, brother and aunt have all been in the Dáil. His father had the unique distinction of having been in the Dáil before his grandfather. This family is an exception to the rule. The days of political dynasties are definitely coming to an end.

If I am not mistaken, there was a turnover in the last general election of almost one third among Deputies, which is fairly frightening. Given that the dual mandate has been abolished since that election, we will see a huge turnover in the Seanad as well. This remains to be seen. Everybody acknowledges that Fine Gael did very badly in the last general election, but Fianna Fáil lost ten seats. In the case of Fianna Fáil, party colleagues took the seats, but it is worth bearing these points in mind to demonstrate the volatility of politics. There is much more pressure on politicians nowadays because of all the media scrutiny and other political developments. In the early 1980s, very few seats swung and one could almost guarantee how many seats a party would get, with the exception of one or two, and this was the difference between forming a Government and not forming one. It is worth noting that if this were the 1980s, we would have fought three general elections and three Seanad elections in the period between now and the last general election. This is fairly terrifying for somebody like me.

The Bill as it stands will alter the age profile in politics in years to come such that politicians will be much older because it will be very hard to entice young people or even middle-aged people into politics who will have to wait until they are 65 to draw a pension. Senator O'Toole's point about the Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, spending of 30 years in politics is frightening. This will be very unlikely in the future. However, one could spend 30 years in politics, having entered at the age of 25, and not be entitled to a pension for a further ten years. The Minister of State might revisit this area.