Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

That sounds like the Senator is open to influence, given that he is looking for cross-party co-operation. A rash of requests for cross-party co-operation has broken out in recent days both here and in the Dáil. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the difficulties the junior partners are having in persuading the senior partner, Fianna Fáil, to accept their policies.

I agree with the points made by Senators Boyle and de Búrca concerning the quality of the sub-committee's report produced by the last Seanad. It is a most interesting document containing a good overview of the Seanad's work, the potential for reform, and practical recommendations on a range of matters. As the report said, some of the recommendations will be uncomfortable for people. There is no doubt about that. Change is uncomfortable for everyone, including politicians, and people will have differing views on some of the recommendations.

It has been pointed out that we have a new Seanad with 35 new Members, and parties are represented that were absent from the last Seanad. The Leader has said he would like to see what consensus exists on the recommendations of the sub-committee's report. While that is important, we do not need another report.

This report is impressive in terms of the 161 written submissions, the four days of public hearings and the great work done by Senator Joe O'Toole, the former Senators Brian Hayes, Mary O'Rourke and John Dardis, and the former Senator Brendan Ryan who was a member of the group for a period. Its recommendations are radical and far reaching. It recommends constitutional and legislative change and extensive revisions of the Seanad Standing Orders.

I heard what the Minister responsible said about the university panels this morning. I do not know whether he intends to select university panels and recommend change in that respect as opposed to what the report recommends, namely, the introduction of a package of reforms. That would be a preferable way to proceed. Such change affects everybody. The way to deal with it would be to opt for a package of reforms as opposed to any one particular reform mentioned in this report.

Fine Gael welcomes this debate. It offers us an opportunity once more to discuss the need to reform this House and make it relevant, radical and ready for the challenges ahead. I will not support the Green Party motion owing to its nature and context because the House should not congratulate the Government on its intentions. Rather it should condemn it for its inaction on the reform agenda and put pressure on it to move forward in that regard. The House should view the Government's stated intentions with nothing but a sceptical eye until we see that reform become a reality. That is the challenge we face and it has been a tough one in the Seanad over the years because we have had so many reports and even a constitutional amendment that was not acted upon. We should not welcome the commitment in this respect in the programme for Government until we see evidence on the ground of real change and commitment by all the parties in Government.

I acknowledge the work of my predecessor, Deputy Brian Hayes, who was the Fine Gael representative on the sub-committee. We published our agenda for change of the Seanad as far back as 2003 with a comprehensive programme for reform. Among the recommendations were for the Seanad to be given a watchdog role on secondary legislation. Many statutory instruments become law with no parliamentary scrutiny required only that they be laid before the Oireachtas for a 21-day period. Where more than 20 Members of the Seanad request it, the statutory instrument should be debated and voted on by the Seanad.

Whatever about secondary legislation we are in the business here of dealing with primary legislation. It is ironic to speak on reform of the Seanad in a week when the Government, backed by Senators Déirdre de Búrca and Dan Boyle, saw fit not to bring any legislation to the House. Not one Bill is before the House this week. I understand there is also an issue in the Dáil in regard to the lack of legislation. I have some idea about what has happened but where is the legislation to be introduced and the legislative programme for the Dáil and the Seanad in this term?