Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I gather this issue came up yesterday on the Joe Duffy show and it seems many of the disability groups are not aware of it. However, I did not get up to speak on that issue. Senator Moloney is, of course, right to remind people that it is very important that the consultative process be maximised.

Was the Leader aware that RTE had planned to produce the programme on the Houses of the Oireachtas which was transmitted last Monday evening? The Ceann Comhairle, as is his wont and his right, toured the Dáil Chamber - and he did it exceptionally well - yet there was no office holder from the Seanad. I do not mean in any way to disrespect the individual who toured with the cameras - that is not the point I am making and has nothing whatever to do with this. However, it has everything to do with the status and dignity of this House and with all the House is supposed to portray. I would like to know if the Leader was aware of this and to ask why no office holder was present when the cameras came into this House.

That was followed yesterday morning by a screaming headline in the Irish Independent that Senators had taken an extra day off despite a vote on abolition. This is yet another injurious and pejorative article that is only fuelling the poison already out there among people who have no empathy with this House, and is primarily fuelled by an apathetic and neglectful media who have not taken their own democratic responsibilities seriously enough to sit in this House and to listen to what we have to say.

Then we heard today - again, I say this with all due respect to the people involved, and I am sure it is a very important issue and an important day for them - that we have been given two and half hours of time next week to discuss essays. We are the national Parliament. I do not want to get into an argument about it. It was decided by the relevant committee and it has been processed, and I understand over 250 students were involved. It is an important issue and I do not in any way want to denigrate that. However, is that what we, as the second House of the Oireachtas, are supposed to be doing? This is at a time when the country is staggering along on a daily basis and on a day when the major trade unions - all of the trade unions, in fact, if one considers the totality of membership - decided they were not going to accept the Government's agenda in regard to Croke Park II. I understand the €300 million that must be saved has been included in the Estimates which were published this morning for the next year.