Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to prove the point about bicameral parliaments. What is the whole point of bicameral parliaments? There are currently bicameral legislatures in 75 of the 186, or 40%, of countries which are members of the Interparliamentary Union, IPU. Bicameralism is even more common in the OECD and the EU. Some 19 of the 34 developed countries in the OECD have bicameral parliamentary structures and what is wrong with that? If it is good enough for them, it might be good enough for us also. There are 13 bicameral parliaments in the 28 member states. The list of 75 countries with bicameral parliaments in alphabetical order are interesting: Afghanistan, not working too well, Algeria, Antigua, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Czech Republic, Democrat Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Egypt, under major pressure, and if it had a good bicameral system it may not have the problems it has today, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Germany, Grenada, Haiti, India, Ireland for the moment, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Lucia-----