Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I listened with great interest to Senator Feeney and I must say I share some of her concerns about the way in which debates take place. It would be great if we could get away from the polarised debate where people are either speaking out against serious problems, for example, that arise in the HSE, without also talking about the good things that are happening. The same onus is on the Government side not to be constantly in the defensive mode but to recognise there are problems and that they need to be addressed. I was thinking in a similar vein in the context of the church when reading the report in today's The Irish Times on the excellent work being done by the National Board for Safeguarding Children and its head Ian Elliott. It would be nice if, while being justly critical of all the wrong that has taken place and all the failures that continue to happen, people would also recognise the excellent progress that has been made in regard to safeguarding children. There is a culture of excellence on board given the work of Mr. Elliott and the National Board for Safeguarding Children. It would be good if these debates were not reduced to polarised experiences between people who have different agendas and who are using the issues of the day to pursue those agendas.

I wish to raise a matter that I raised briefly yesterday. In light of the interesting and critical comments made by the Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, about the political system, is it not time we had a debate in the House about how the political system is working? A few months ago we had a very intense debate about proposals to abolish the Seanad. What have we done since then to prove our utility to the people? We should have serious debates about the future of this country and about how the political process is working. That is the kind of reflective debate that would do this House a great credit. I ask the Leader to name a date for such a debate on the operation of our political system and, indeed, about the direction which our Republic is taking.