Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

What is the Government afraid of? The Minister of State speaks about the quality of assurances. Those assurances are from one government to another, not from one Parliament to another. I do not understand the Government's difficulty with allowing the establishment of a select committee that would ensure this House could come to the same set of conclusions as the Minister has on the basis of assurances he has got from the Executive of another state.

I have an open mind on the issue. If, tomorrow, we had a select committee established with a Government majority and it came to the same conclusion as the Minister of State within a few months, that would be fine. What difficulty has the Government got in allowing the work of this House to fulfil its role in supporting fundamental international human rights? Why will it not allow the work of this committee to commence and come to some conclusions?

It is important to establish this committee. If the Government prevents this basic reform and approach, we have a bigger problem on our hands, namely, the problem of the reform of the Seanad. I have said previously that unless this House reforms itself, it should be abolished. The timescale for reform has long since come to an end. The view of all Members of this House when it met after the last Seanad election was that there should be reform. We put in place a reform committee that produced excellent proposals. We now see a way of implementing those proposals.

The problem now is that we cannot seriously talk about reform of the House unless the Government is prepared to allow the Seanad to come to its own conclusion on matters such as the establishment of a select committee. I question the intention of the Government to bring about serious reform of this House if it uses its blocking majority to oppose what is an innocuous select committee being established to examine this important matter.

The people of the Shannon region would be more than happy to see this committee in place or to allow this Parliament to do its job. I refer Government Senators to the clear commitment in the Standing Orders of the House that select committees are to be established in this House to report to it in a forthright and immediate way on any matter of concern brought to its attention. I have much more faith in the Members of this House and their ability to make honest conclusions than some Government Senators. I have much more confidence in the Members of this House to do their job, but unfortunately the Government refuses to allow the Seanad to do its constitutional job. In that process, it is ruining the prospect of Seanad reform.

Unless this House reforms itself and shows itself relevant to the issues raised by ordinary citizens on a constant basis, it will soon be abolished. As important as this motion is, that is the message I would like to pass on. We must reform this House and the tangible, demonstrable way to start that process is to accept this motion.