Dr. Maurice Manning:

I am conscious that the reform is only the beginning but it has been made early in the life of Parliament. There is no shortage of good ideas. It is not my role to elaborate here today on what Senators could and should do, that is their job. It is their opportunity to be imaginative and resolute in effecting change, always remembering that their core role is as unchanged today as it was in 1922 scrutinising and improving legislation, and doing so in one interest only - that of the people of Ireland.

If any lesson is to be learned from our ongoing national crisis it is that the absence or the failure of scrutiny was at the heart of so much that went wrong. I am not just referring to scrutiny of legislation or regulation but the failure to see the bigger picture, failure to stand back from the helter of events to ask some fundamental and probing questions. Just as all our major institutions were found wanting, so too were these Houses. It must never happen again, and this House with its capacity for reflection, its capacity at times to be prophetic, and its potential to forge direct links with the diversity of civil society, has the potential to ensure this does not happen again.

In conclusion may I repeat just one point, namely, the Irish people are fair-minded. There is no ingrained hostility to this House. The case is theirs to make. They have the ability and the material to make a good case..

A Chathaoirligh, I wish you well in doing this and I thank you for the privilege of inviting me here today.