Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gallagher, and thank the Leader and her committee for the tremendous work they have done in compiling this report. I would like to take up Senator White's point about the number of Senators who made submissions. Senators may not have made submissions in the knowledge they would have the opportunity to speak when the report came before the House and to avoid prolonging the committee's work.

I often wonder how the Seanad was set up, when one thinks back to the 1930s or whenever. As Senator Dardis said, ours is probably the most complicated system in the world. One wonders how people ever thought of putting all those panels and sub-panels together and devised the system for the counting of votes. Then there was the educational end of it involving the graduates of Trinity College and the NUI, as well as the Taoiseach's nominees. It must have taken an enormous effort and considerable time to reach agreement, unless there was one brainy strong-willed person that commandeered the whole system and put it all together.