Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I like a bit of bluster too and I am good to give it, but we need to have genuine interaction.

The Minister and Senators have spoken about how we can implement reform and change. The Lisbon treaty, as we mentioned, has been passed which means European legislation and European scrutiny can come into this House. Rather than having an EU scrutiny committee, which is doing good work, it could be done here.

I will incur the wrath of the Independent Senators, but we have this great line about having to reform how the Independent Senators are elected and to include new universities. The Minister for Education and Science today has abolished the NUI. What implication does that have for the Seanad? At the stroke of a pen, he abolished the NUI.

Personally, I have no difficulty in advocating reform of the Seanad because in my two and a half years here I have tremendously enjoyed it. I find the debate here to be invigorating and I get a great lift from it. Unfortunately, much of the debate here goes unnoticed. While I might not agree with what is said, there is a great sense of participation by the Members who have a good ability to communicate the message of whatever debate. There have been some great suggestions from all sides of the House that have not gone anywhere, which we need to reflect upon and we need to change and amend.

Part of the difficulty, be it driven by the media or for whatever reason, is that people see this House as irrelevant, which it is not. It is very relevant in the scrutiny of legislation. In time, and when the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 which has gone through this House comes out into the public domain, there will be consternation. Under this Government, there is more power devolved back into central government, taken away from the regions, taken away from the councils and given back to the Minister and to the mandarins in the Department, which is wrong. There needs to be greater scrutiny here and we need more time devoted to scrutiny of legislation without guillotines. We need to schedule our business more effectively and efficiently, and orientate it more towards this House having relevance beyond the gates of the compound of Leinster House.