Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State will be aware of this because I have raised it with him directly. For the past two weeks I have endeavoured to get a one hour debate on the new statutory code of conduct on mortgage arrears. One hour is all I seek and I cannot get it. I cannot get that debate here in the Seanad to get a Minister to outline why the Government is proceeding with this. If we are discussing reform, surely to God Ministers should be answerable, if not accountable, to this House. As Senators and legislators, we should be able to raise issues on behalf of our constituents, the people who elect us and whom we represent. That includes university Senators, Taoiseach's appointees and Senators, such as I, who were elected through the panel system. I cannot even get one hour and yet the Government spent all day last Friday debating a Bill - which is good legislation - on moving to Central European Time. That is fine. Let us have that debate if the Government wants. However, I cannot get an answer on why the Government is pulling the rug from under people in mortgage arrears.

A reformed Dáil and Seanad would enable legislators to raise those points and hold Government to account. However, we are not permitted to do so. Apparently we are concerned about reducing the presidential term from seven to five years - big deal - and reducing the voting age from 18 to 16 - big deal. The Government will not even give people the option of Seanad reform. It would not even allow it go to the Constitutional Convention to be discussed. It is putting a referendum to the people on reducing the voting age when only 52% of the Constitutional Convention agreed to that. However, it is not holding a referendum on how people can get nominated to stand for the Presidency because it did not like the answer. It did not take on board suggestions Senator Norris has made over the years and that were made at the Constitutional Convention to allow citizens to nominate people to run for the Presidency.

The Government is picking and choosing what it wants to drive the agenda. It is driving its agenda by ripping asunder Bunreacht na hÉireann which in the main has served the State very well in the time it has been in place.

What checks and balances will the Government introduce to the legislation as published? In the Taoiseach's Second Stage speech he mentioned the powers of removal and impeachment of a President and removal of a Comptroller and Auditor General. If the Seanad is abolished, just 60% of the Dáil can vote for the removal of a Comptroller and Auditor General and 70% for the removal of a President. I asked the Taoiseach directly if that would be done in the context of the removal of a party Whip. An autocratic Taoiseach, like the current one, could simply propose the removal of the Comptroller and Auditor General because he did not like he was doing with a banking or any other inquiry and then whip every Fine Gael Party Deputy into removing the Comptroller and Auditor General or even the President.

I hope we never have a Government with as sizeable a majority as the one this Government has, regardless of the lead party in that Government. It is proven that large majorities are bad for democracy. There is no question in my mind about that but if a Government had a large majority without a Seanad to make Ministers feel uncomfortable, answer questions, or at least request a Minister to come into the House to answer questions, hold him or her to account on social welfare Bills and produce legislation that was helpful to Government, where would we be heading? Where is democracy heading in this country? It is not too late for the Minister of State to change tack on this, even though he has published the Bill.

I do not mean to be derogatory but the Taoiseach did not give me the impression when he was in this House that his heart was in this measure. That is strange for someone who, until a few years ago, was saying that a reformed Seanad would work and who, in that Fine Gael reform paper, spoke about the then Taoiseach coming to the Seanad once a month to answer questions. He certainly has not lived up to that when he has been in the House twice in two and a half years, but it is not too late. All of us must ensure the structures of the Legislature are protected and improved, and there is no doubt in my mind that they can be vastly improved. The Leas-Chathaoirleach, my colleague, Senator O'Donovan, has produced a very good reform document, as have Senator Zappone and Senator Quinn, who published a very good Bill the Government accepted on Second Stage. I do not understand the rush. The Taoiseach continually states this measure is a commitment in the programme for Government, but numerous commitments in the programme for Government have been set aside. It is not as if the Government is following commitments it made prior to the election or in the programme for Government. It has ditched many of them.