Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I look forward to the good Senator leading by example in that regard. There are many fine journalists. Listening to the debate on "Morning Ireland" earlier today about the Government's plans to reduce the number of TDs, we heard how it started off with a promise by the Fine Gael party to reduce the number of TDs by 20. As we all know, that was diluted in the programme for Government. This morning, journalists were simply accepting that in light of the demographic changes one could not now reduce the number of TDs by 20 because one would fall foul of the constitutional requirement that there must be one TD for every 30,000 of the population. The obvious point, however, is that it can be changed by referendum. Is that not what the proposed abolition, rather than reform, of the Seanad is all about? Why was it beyond the capacity of journalists to ask the obvious question, which is "If you are going to have a referendum to abolish the Seanad, why not ensure in that referendum that one may reduce the number of TDs by 20"? Instead of falling for the standard political slide-back, our journalists should wake up to the hard questions they ought to ask.