Shane Ross (Independent)

I hope I may speak without interruption from the Leader. Those people are elected by the outgoing Dáil and Seanad and the county councils. This guarantees that the favourite sons and daughters of the people in power in those parties are elected. It is even more of an inside job than Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party electing their own people. It means the leadership gets its own people elected by nods, winks and pressure. That needs reform.

Let us abolish the idea of the Royal Irish Academy somehow having a nominee to this House. It simply does not happen, nor does it with the IFA or, God forbid, IBEC or ICTU. Those bodies never get anybody elected, thank God, but nor does it happen that people with that sort of vocation succeed in getting people elected. The people who are elected eventually are the representatives of political parties. We need reform but they need reform just as badly, so let us have the package all together.