David Norris (Independent)

Senator Cassidy, the restored Leader of the House, referred to the media in trenchant terms. We do not need to be frightened. There are many new Senators here, including Senator Eoghan Harris who, having got it so spectacularly wrong on the war in Iraq, may find that in his reportage from the battlefront here in Seanad Éireann he is able to give the people who read the largest selling newspaper in the country the real news.

I congratulate my good colleague and friend, the longest serving Member of this House, and a poll topper, Senator Ross, on the dignity and courage with which he spoke before Senator Moylan attained his present eminence.

I am greatly encouraged by the universal appetite for Seanad reform which usually dwindles after the first day. To encourage it to continue, I have placed on the Order Paper as No. 15, a proposal that we do something about this and adopt the principal recommendations of the report on Seanad reform. I note with interest that for some technical reasons, the names of my colleagues, Senators O'Toole and Ross, are not on the motion. I am sure they will be there, however, by the time we return. I will put it before the House and I ask the Government Members to show their cards by voting for the proposals for Seanad reform, not the wishy-washy drivel that we all talk about. Let us see them vote for those concrete proposals. That will be a good day.

We have nothing to fear from the further democratisation of the Seanad. I am not ashamed to represent university graduates and do not deprecate them. It is a fine achievement for people to have university degrees. It does not make them better than other people but if the entire panel system had been operated, the university seats would not have been left on their lonely eminence as the only fully democratic section of the Seanad. I remind Senator Cassidy that Senator Ross and I got approximately 5,500 votes each.