Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I certainly made a very wise decision. The Minister of State has learned his skill well and made a major contribution to Irish politics since he first became a Member of this House and subsequently a Member of the Dáil.

I was present on the night in 2009 when our party leader announced the decision to hold a referendum on the future of the Seanad. I remember the shock and horror on the faces of Members of the Oireachtas that night when they heard the news. However, I think everybody expected it would be quietly dropped and forgotten after the general election. People misread the determination of the Taoiseach, and the commitment to hold the referendum was included in the programme for Government. That is why we are here today debating this issue. I have always had a high regard for Seanad Éireann, and as a political junkie I have always followed the proceedings of the House with great interest over the years. I am acutely aware of the contribution that Members of this House have made to society and to our country in different walks of life. It is worth recalling the contribution that was made to peace and reconciliation by people such as Seamus Mallon and Gordon Wilson, the contribution made to advancing human rights by people such as David Norris, Rónán Mullen and Ivana Bacik, and the contribution made to business by people such as T. K. Whitaker, Seán Barrett and Feargal Quinn, among many others who have occupied these seats over the years.

I was very honoured to be nominated by the Irish Vocational Education Association to contest the Seanad election on the cultural and educational panel in 2011. I will always be grateful to the members of the local authorities around the country who elected me. Because of that, I have a mandate to represent my constituency and people through the country. I got a very significant first preference vote from councillors who in many cases were elected by up to 2,000 people. Having served on a local authority for 25 years, I feel that the electoral process for the Seanad needs reform. Even though we all have a mandate, it is somewhat elitist that 43 seats are filled through election by members of the incoming Dáil, the outgoing Seanad and local authorities, and six seats are filled by graduates of the NUI and Trinity College, to the exclusion of other third level graduates. The Taoiseach then gets to fill 11 seats to ensure a government majority.

In his contribution to the debate here, the Taoiseach rightly highlighted the fact that after 75 years and ten comprehensive reports, not one iota of reform has taken place in the Seanad. Successive governments failed to do anything about reform because it suited them to keep the Seanad neutered. Senators over the years must take responsibility for the lack of reform, particularly those from government parties that held power for long periods. They failed to convince their government and ministerial colleagues that the Seanad had a significant contribution to make to our democracy and was worth reforming, in spite of significant reports highlighting the need for reform by many political heavyweights, including a former Minister and former Leader of the Seanad, Mary O'Rourke. The Minister of State had an input into that particular document. If he had had the opportunity, I feel that our current Leader would have succeeded in convincing the Government of the need to reform the Seanad, given the many innovative things he has brought to the House since 2011.

I was very disappointed that Seanad reform and the future of the Seanad was not included for discussion at the Constitutional Convention. As the Taoiseach said, "The convention is a new and stimulating means of examining constitutional reform, one which puts people in their proper place at the very heart of the process, because it is to them that the Constitution of our country belongs." If the people of Ireland decide to retain the Seanad, I hope the Government will ask the Constitutional Convention to deliberate on this particular issue.

Few people will disagree on the need for reform of our political system. We need better and stronger local government in which we devolve real powers to our councillors and our elected members. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is to be commended for his Putting People First programme, and I hope it works. There are some sceptics out there who are disappointed that town councils are to be abolished. I share some concerns about that as well, but I feel the Minister is on the right track and he will have the support of this House in his endeavours.

The Dáil and Oireachtas committees need radical reform and I welcome the Taoiseach's commitment to this. However, our economic crash of recent years highlighted the impact of poor politics and poor regulation of our financial institutions. As we prepare to exit the bailout, we need to put in place a political system that ensures we never repeat the mistakes of the past. In my opinion, a reformed Seanad can play a crucial role in rebuilding our country and protecting our democracy through better scrutiny of legislation. As we all know, the Dáil does not always get it right. This House has made many amendments to legislation that had been overlooked in the other House.

As we know most of our legislation now comes from Europe and there is certainly no appropriate system in the House for the scrutiny of EU legislation. What better place to do that than in Seanad Éireann? The Seanad should hold Government to account. We should be using the expertise of the Seanad in a more productive way for the benefit of all our citizens. We should have direct elections to this House with universal suffrage on panels of expertise. Very few would disagree with that.

Much has been made of the cost of the Seanad and many Members have identified opportunities for reducing costs. That is achievable. The cost of the Seanad, even at the highest figure quoted, pales into insignificance when we consider what bad and poor government and bad regulation have cost this country over the past five or six years. When they go to the polls the people will have major decisions to make. They will have to decide whether they want to remove Seanad Éireann, a major plank of our democratic system since the foundation of the State. They will have to ask themselves whether they have confidence that a reformed Dáil will be more effective than the current one and whether they want to give more power to unelected advisers, given our experience of them in the past. I will be supporting the legislation here to enable the people to have their say but I must confirm that on referendum day I will be voting to retain the Seanad. We must remember the people always get it right.