David Norris (Independent)

Yes, but it was unnecessary because the situation is far too serious and I know the Senator is a serious man with a clear view on the issue.

I share Senator Sheahan's regret regarding Senator Barrett. I greatly regret that Senator Barrett was not elected to the Seanad at least ten years ago. If somebody of his clarity of vision, expertise and technical competence had been elected, those attributes would have been of considerable significance. This is a good day for Seanad Éireann because we have shown through the introduction of this Bill, under the tutelage of Senator Barrett, that we can do profound work. I was unable to attend the briefing but I downloaded the material provided. It was not altogether helpful because it contains some very abstruse mathematical calculations that left me dumbfounded. It seems — Senator Barrett may, if I am wrong, correct me when he makes his final comments — this Bill is an attempt to correct the boom-bust cycle by which politics have been bedevilled.

Senator Barrett puts it very elegantly in his excellent explanatory financial memorandum that economic analysis has also found that election cycles result in fiscal myopia and a lack of internalisation of the costs of budgetary actions over the medium to long term. In other words, political parties serve their own ends and rarely think beyond the next election. That is the reason that five, ten, 15 or 20 year projects have sometimes got stuck in the works. It is because governments have a tendency to look to their own advantage. This is not confined to one party or government but is a fact of political life. In that context, it is extremely important — something I see as a central trend of the Bill — to return these matters to parliamentary accountability. This is vital, because there is a growing lack of democracy in these areas. As I have already said, I found some of the calculations impossible to follow, but I can follow the general explanation, and however abstruse and academic the arguments are, they have an impact on us as ordinary people and citizens.

In the explanatory financial memorandum, Senator Barrett reminds us that the Government has agreed with the IMF that it will introduce a fiscal responsibility law. Therefore, the ground is prepared. We have, as a country, committed to doing this and I believe Senator Barrett has done us a favour by producing this Bill. It is the practice of Government from time to time to accept the principle of legislation and then adapt it. I hope this will be one of those occasions that this will happen. The Government may find, for one reason or another, that it is not prepared to give an immediate commitment on this, perhaps because it needs a Cabinet decision. There has been a practice with previous legislation where a certain number of minutes allocated to the debate are left unused so that Bill remains on the Order Paper. I suggest that since this is such an important Bill, that should happen in this case. Perhaps Senator Barrett should seek advice from the officials of the House with regard to how some minutes may be left unused so that the Bill remains on the Order Paper to be resumed. The number of minutes remaining may be only three or four minutes, but this time can be expanded by direction of the House. I see the Minister of State nodding and I hope it is a nod of agreement and not of somnolence. I hope this will happen.

I fully agree with Senator Quinn's father, whom I never had the pleasure of knowing, that it is important to have the reputation of paying one's bills and being a person of integrity and honour. However, at the same time, one does not want to be a complete fool.