Joe O'Toole (Independent)

Exactly. That is the argument. The exclusive nature of restricting the vote to graduates of certain universities is indefensible. Outside of that, it becomes very easy.

Section 3 could be elected by local authority members while section 4 could be nominees of the Taoiseach. I do not have a difficulty with nominations by the Taoiseach. I am not interested in creating a situation where the Government could be overwhelmed, toppled, restricted or perverted in this House. However, the Taoiseach's nominees should have to subscribe to various categories. People would have views on the walks of life from which they would come, whether the emigrant community, the Northern Ireland community or various other areas. I will not go into that but there should not be a free reign for a Taoiseach to nominate his or her buddies to the Seanad; it must be specific.

Recently, many of us met our Northern Ireland colleagues in County Down and talked about a North-South parliamentary body. One of the big issues being addressed is a civic forum, North and South. In the past two weeks, I heard people talk about the importance of a civic forum in which ordinary people would have a voice. That is what this House was intended to achieve and what it should do, that is, be a bicameral Chamber where people would reflect the views of various groups. If every group in the community was represented in the Seanad, one could get a full view of the community. It would add to the debate and make it much more important. It would give ordinary people a stake in what goes on here, which they do not have currently.

People do not feel connected to this House. I defy anybody to disagree with me on that. Our job is to be a conduit for people. If we cannot be such, we are going nowhere. It is not as if the Dáil does it that well but that is its business. There is a huge disconnect, some of which we cannot control. However, we can control other parts of it. What I propose in the motion is an attempt to build that bridge to the population and to make the people stakeholders in the formation of the Seanad.