Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There has to be a whip.

Under the proposed reformed Seanad if I wanted to run I would have to get 1,000 people to send a letter to my local returning officer. I could walk around the streets of Kilkenny or the Town Hall in Kilkenny and ask people to do that, but would the people of Donegal who may have a vote on the agricultural panel know who Pat O'Neill was? I ran on the agricultural panel and local authority councillors knew who I was because I had met them over the years. In other words, it would become a local election again. A person from Kilkenny would support a candidate from Kilkenny and another person would support the person from Donegal. That part of the legislation is flawed. It means one must register to vote. Senator Crown said that people nominate and people elect. I cannot agree with a situation whereby one must register to vote on a panel. If I arrived at a polling booth, what would happen? I would get my general election ballot for the Dáil. Then I would have to tell the returning officer that I have decided to vote on the agricultural panel on the given day. That does not work. How would that work? If a person from Offaly was running on the agricultural panel, all the people from Offaly would vote for the person because he was from Offaly. It would not be a true election.

I agree with the sentiments on reform of the House. We have held a debate on it. However, like Senator Bradford, I call on Senator Crown not to push this to a vote. Instead, I call on him to reflect on the words I used, to have sober second thoughts and not to put this to a vote. With regard to reform or abolition of the Seanad, we could benefit by having more debates on the subject, but if it is pushed to a vote it may limit our opportunity to do so in future.