Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

Senators get no help. This is one of the reasons we have been criticised. I would have a difficulty in drawing a salary and expenses without giving a service back to the people who pay my wages, the taxpayers. However, what help do I get to do that? In a word, none. There has been a parliamentary response to an ill-conceived report in a national newspaper last Sunday which was grossly inaccurate even in my case. It was only wrong by €10,500, but that is all right. If the truth gets in the way of the story, the story is a one-way winner every time. Senators need to fund it if they want to give a service. If they want to open an office they need to fund it. One can imagine the job that is in these times. To say it is impossible would be the nicest thing one could say.

Senators Norris and O'Toole spoke about the nominating bodies. I take a somewhat different view. I have the honour of being the only Member of the House to be nominated to stand and elected by local authority members and Oireachtas Members given that I was nominated by the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland, the oldest local authority organisation in the country. Even though I represent it as its nominee, it is short-changed in this House. While at all times I seek to put forward its views, it does not have a vote. Some of the biggest urban authorities, including those of towns with a bigger population than some counties do not have a vote.