David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I warmly welcome Dr. Manning to the House. I am a newly elected Senator and I was not around when he was a Member of this House, but I have heard him speak on a number of occasions, including only last week on the tenth anniversary of the Irish Human Rights Commission, at which he gave an excellent speech. I am deeply conscious of the role that he, who is a humble person, his staff and all those in the commission play in the area of human rights and in ensuring the Government lives up to its obligations under human rights instruments. That is critical.

I will deal with the potential merger and some fears I might have in that regard. The impression has been created, sometimes by those in Government but also by a largely compliant media, and generally in the western world while applying to Ireland, that we do not have to worry about human rights or civil rights because we live in the free world and in a civilised world where human rights are not issues that we must grapple and deal with and, by and large, people's rights are protected. That is not the reality. There are many breaches of people's civil rights and human rights in the free world, including in this country.

Previous speakers mentioned the wealth of civic organisations and individuals who are pioneers and advocates in the field of human rights and civil rights and who lobby us week in, week out. Every time we draft legislation, and we are elected to these Houses to discuss legislation, there are groups to give us a helping hand. We had it on the Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Bill 2011, previously proposed by Senator Bacik and restored to the Order Paper, and we had organisations representing vulnerable women which assisted us in ensuring the legislation we passed was rights-based so that we were living up to our responsibilities. I could give countless other examples.

The question was asked about what the Seanad should do. I would ask the same of the entire political system. When we mention reform of the Seanad, we must put it in the context of reform of the entire political system, including the Dáil. I would like to see, especially for civic society, better opportunities for those organisations to which I have referred to play more of a role in decision making. Perhaps that could be done through the Oireachtas committees and is a role that we could examine.

Essentially, what we should do is act. The responsibility of politicians is to vindicate the rights of citizens. We are failing many citizens in this country in some of the areas which have been mentioned such as health, education, access to services and employment. There are some patients in this State who, unfortunately, are forced to lie on hospital trolleys. People with money can buy favourable access to health treatment while people from disadvantaged backgrounds must wait on long waiting lists. People who are geographically disadvantaged because they happen to live in a certain part of Ireland must travel for cancer treatment. These are basic denials of a person's right to health services. There have been countless cases where parents have had to take the State to court to get the education their children deserve as a birthright. These are the issues politicians need to deal with. We cannot simply talk about human rights or civil rights. We must vindicate those rights, and in a republic, that is what the political system and public representatives are there to do.

On the merger, I will have to wait and see what exactly is proposed. I am concerned we could confuse and diminish the opportunity for a merged organisation to hold us all properly to account and ensure human rights, civil rights and equality, all of which are important, are given the precedence and importance they need. I would have that concern in the context of any merger. I note that the Irish Human Rights Commission is stretched for resources and that could diminish the scope for Dr. Manning and his organisation to hold law makers and decision makers properly to account.

The conflict in the North and civil rights were mentioned in the context of the formation of the commission. If that conflict teaches us anything, it is that a failure to vindicate civil rights is a failure of politics itself. That is the lesson we all must learn. We, as politicians, must ensure we vindicate those rights. One of the matters contained in the Good Friday Agreement that we voted for and which we still have not put in place is an all-Ireland bill of rights. I would like to see a discussion about what is meant by human rights and civil rights and what should be vindicated, and for that to be placed on a constitutional footing, which would then compel the Government to ensure the rights of all citizens in this republic are vindicated.