Rónán Mullen (Independent)

Most of us find ourselves giving reluctant support to the budget, despite the lack of credibility in the Government's projections for growth on which the four year plan is predicated, and despite the apparent political opportunism which continues to bedevil decision making. Everybody is happy to see that there were no cuts in the State pension, but when we see that there were cuts for people with disabilities, it becomes clear that political calculations were at work and that is very unfortunate.

I ask the Leader and the Deputy Leader to speak to their bosses in the Government about the playing of politics with the institutions of this State. We heard that there was a last minute discussion about whether it would be a good idea to scrap the Seanad, apparently in order to gazump the leader of the Fine Gael Party and to do what he did a few months ago, namely, to reach for the cookie jar of populist ideas, instead of having a mature, considered debate about how the institutions of our State are working. This is reminiscent of the five minutes' notice given by the smaller party to the larger party in the Government about its general election intentions. It is simply cynical.

Those of us who have some kind of political contribution to make will find another way of offering ourselves to the electorate. It is not about us. However, was any consideration given to the people who work in administration here as support staff for Senators? Or is it just all about gaining the political advantage? If there was serious respect for the institutions of this State, we would be looking at a reformed Seanad. We would be looking at a list system so we could move from a situation where people are voting on the basis of local considerations to a situation where parties would be putting their ideas out on a platform, the personnel on a list, and people would vote for ideas instead of personalities. That would be real political thinking and would show real responsibility towards the electorate-----