Averil Power (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Independent group for taking the initiative to raise this issue. I welcome the motion and agree with its proposals. I thank the Leader for his commitment to progress them and hope that it can be done via the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, CPP, as quickly as possible.

I echo the comments regarding the 2004 report of the committee chaired by former Senator Mary O'Rourke. It is important that we build on that cross-party report, which contained many excellent recommendations and followed on from a public consultation process. The report identified possible new roles for the House in a number of areas, for example, legislative consultation, EU affairs, social partnership, North-South implementation - North-South relations comprise one of the issues raised in the motion - and scrutiny of public appointments.

It is fair to say that the Seanad has served people better than is generally appreciated in terms of providing a forum for a more constructive, less partisan debate and through the legislative improvements proposed in the House. All Senators are anxious to serve people as best we can, to address their daily concerns and to make a real difference.

It is vital that our work should add value to rather than duplicate the role of the Dáil. That the House has struggled for a long time to find an optimum role is evident, given that there have been 12 reports on Seanad reform over many years. I agree with the Leader's sentiments that it is now a case of reform or die. However, considering reform of the Seanad separately from reform of the Dáil and the Government would be fundamentally wrong. I agree with Senator Michael D'Arcy that the real problem lies with the Dáil, which is given the most power under the Constitution and is supposed to hold the Government to account. We have seen a weakness in that role, especially in recent years, and this matter needs to be examined carefully.

While Fine Gael and Labour proposed during the general election that the Seanad be abolished, Fianna Fáil's position was that the Seanad's role should only be examined following serious changes to the Dáil and the Government. As an eminent professor and political scientist in Trinity College stated, without such changes, the abolition of the Seanad would reduce rather than enhance political accountability. It is vital that the Dáil, Government and Seanad be examined together.

A number of Senators, in particular Senator Michael D'Arcy, have pointed to the key weaknesses in the current Dáil-Government system, those being, excessive localism, an infectious level of party political posturing in place of real debate on a daily basis and a lack of expertise around the Cabinet table. Fianna Fáil's proposals during the general election focused on addressing these weaknesses specifically. For example, we made proposals on changing the electoral system. Senator Crown eloquently referred to the benefits of a national list system. For the Dáil, we proposed a mix of single seat constituencies and a national list which would allow people to retain their direct link with local politicians at constituency level while providing an avenue to elect people who were genuinely interested in national issues and who could represent a national constituency.

We made good suggestions on improving the quality of debate and legislative oversight in the Dáil and opportunities for co-operation. The Government has discussed improving the opportunities for Deputies on all sides of the Lower House to have an input into legislation. By the time legislation appears in the House, the Government has typically set out its stall and drawn up detailed legislation and the House is presented with a de facto position. Ministers tend to be reluctant to accept amendments, seeing it as a weakness that they did not think of something, and the Opposition tends to attack everything in the Bill from a political point of view. During the election, we believed this situation could be addressed by holding a general debate in the House before legislation is drafted and by allowing all Deputies, including Government backbenchers, an opportunity to table proposals. In this way, the legislation would benefit and people would see a real difference.

We also proposed that we would improve the method of selection for Government and that those who were not Deputies could be Ministers to allow people with an expertise in other fields to serve, for example, business people who do not want to opt into politics as a 30-year lifetime career but who would like to offer something for five years. We could gain dramatically from this proposal, given our economic difficulties. Will the Leader use his influence within the main Government party to ensure the whole issue of political reform, not just Seanad reform, including the excellent ideas proposed in this debate, is advanced by the new Government?

I wish to touch on a further issue, that is, women's role in politics. It is wrong to discuss political reform without considering that, while 50% of the population is female, it has always been the case that 85% of Deputies have been male. I welcome the fantastic initiative taken by the Taoiseach in nominating seven women as Senators. It shows the quality of women and I do not doubt that excellent women could take a place in the Lower House. The lack of women in politics matters. Without a doubt, the lives of men and women have become increasingly similar in that everyone is concerned about issues such as the economy, jobs, housing and so on. However, a number of other issues affect women predominantly. For example, women are more likely to be full-time carers in the home, either for a child or an elderly parent, to be in low-paid, part-time employment and to be victims of domestic violence, as chillingly revealed in today's publication of Women's Aid's annual report. With respect to the male Senators, and while male politicians will do their best to represent all their constituents, life experience is something that each of us brings to our roles as public representatives, and a woman's life experience and different perspective cannot be genuinely reflected in our national Parliament until it is more representative. I welcome the Government's recent initiative in this regard. Some weeks prior, our party leader made a commitment to run a female candidate in every local electoral area in the next local elections. I hope the issue will be taken on board by all parties.