Sean Barrett (Independent)

The motion before the House is to be commended. The first section refers to having well-informed citizens and residents from all walks of life attend the House, which is to be welcomed, particularly in a House which may face a referendum on its future next year. It would be good for the House to have links with our citizenry and people from a wide range of experiences in life, and a great exercise in parliamentary democracy.

The second section of the motion refers to inviting to the floor of Seanad Éireann on an ongoing basis appropriate leaders and representatives of civic life who have a significant contribution to make to the deliberations of this House. That is something which I also commend to the House as being in the spirit of a participating parliamentary democracy.

The final section refers to the success of a respectful North-South dialogue that has consolidated the peace process in Northern Ireland, with a peace dividend for all the communities affected by the conflict, deepening cross-Border relationships and taking a shared approach to the significant events that will arise in the next decade. The development of parliamentary democracy in Northern Ireland is one of the great optimistic developments in this country in recent times. I said in here last week that I had attended an education debate in Stormont the previous Tuesday, and it was remarkable that nobody questioned the rights of anybody to be there, or whether they were Unionists or Nationalists. Bringing this development into the Seanad is something to be commended.

In strengthening and deepening our democracy, we must bear in mind the infringements that have taken place in recent times. The bypassing of the Parliament by lobbyists such as the bankers on 29 and 30 September 2008 will probably cost us about €70 billion. The guarantee on behalf of the banking community was given by people who had right of access to the Government and senior civil servants. The success of tax lawyers and accountants in gaining access to the Government - very little discussion has taken place on these tax breaks and write-offs - has cost us €11.5 billion per year, according to Micheál Collins of the economics department in TCD.

In addition to inviting people whom we believe would strengthen the House and its democratic procedures, we should invite some of the other groups who seem to have access to the Government and who, in my view, are an affront to parliamentary democracy, given how they seem to get their way and that they have imposed such costs on all aspects of Irish society for decades ahead. This is a parliamentary democracy. Even if those people do not want to attend, they should be invited. It will tell us a lot about them if they do not attend, even if the Government has yet to put forward its proposals on the compellability of witnesses. Inviting them to explain what they thought they were doing at the time would be valuable.

The motion by the other Independent Senators is commendable, as is the Leader's amendment. It could be a very important development in parliamentary democracy in Ireland, and a very important measure in ensuring the future of this House to contribute to our parliamentary democracy. I am very pleased to commend the motion to the House.