Sean Barrett (Independent)

I am proud to second the motion. I welcome the Minister of State, who is a regular visitor to the House. I agree with Senator Norris that we have been most fortunate with President Michael D. Higgins in the performance of his duties and, indeed, with all his predecessors.

However, this is a time to look forward and I believe these issues should have been put on the agenda for the constitutional convention, in particular the initiative power. Under the Lisbon treaty 1 million citizens can make petitions to the European Parliament. That is from a population of 500 million. It is the same percentage of our 4.8 million as 9,600 people; in other words, the 10,000 signatures that the all-party committee considered. In fact, it is in line with European practice. I am sure the Minister will agree that it is very important we deepen and extend democracy and if somebody collects 10,000 signatures, it would be a good idea to put his or her name before the people for election. As we emerge from the failure of so many Irish institutions which led to the bank guarantee and the rescue of the entire country by the IMF in late 2010, reinventing institutions, the citizenry and governance is a major issue. There were powers of initiative for citizens under the constitution of the first Free State Government and in these days of improved technology and an alert and interested citizenry - the Taoiseach said earlier today that he finds Irish citizens much more involved and interested in European issues than is the case in other countries, which is probably because we must have referenda - we have a very vibrant democracy which will help us jointly to find a way out of our difficulties.

Allowing 10,000 citizens to nominate a candidate for President would be a deepening of that democracy. Like my learned friend, I wished that the Minister of State's brother had been able to accumulate that number of signatures.