Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I gave the background as to why I felt certain things needed to be said. It is interesting to note that in 1978, the number of Bills initiated in this House was as low as 6%. We then had the 1979 amendment to the Constitution which no Government has bothered to implement by law. By 1988, some 9% of all legislation was initiated here, and by 1998, it was 24%. It was 23% in 1999, the same in 2000, 19% in 2001, 33% in 2002, 45% in 2003, 41% in 2004, 34% in 2005, 31% in 2006, 33% in 2007, 31% in 2008, and it has been somewhat higher than that in the past two years. The figure for amendments last year was 1,500, a figure the Minister of State did not know. He has used this House to make improvements to his Department's legislation on one occasion. He did not know that, but why would he want to know that when he is trying to direct the abolition of one third of the Oireachtas? At a minimum he will get a better briefing before the next interview on wiping out one third of the Oireachtas. In 1999, 130 amendments were made in the House; in 2008 it was 1,199; in 2007 it was 764; in 2006 it was 946; in 2005 it was 1,547; and in 2004 it was 1,861.

We wonder how soon the abolition day might come. The Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Hogan, and some others, who have been talking on the issue, have mentioned how we are going to have such an enhanced local government system that there will be no need for the kinds of checks and balances the Seanad would provide. They point to many northern European countries with no second House but good local government. That is an incomparable situation. The level of devolved powers in northern European countries is completely different from that in local authorities here. This is in a year when we are digging up the pitch further in terms of local democracy with the abolition of town councils and making county councils in certain areas exceptionally small. We are telling the people in the north west, for example, that a county such as Sligo, with a population of 65,000 and the ninth largest urban centre in the country with 22,000 people can make do with 18 councillors. However, a few miles down the road, County Leitrim with a population of 33,000 people will also have 18 councillors.

There is insufficient joined-up thinking. We are using enhanced local government as a defence for the abolition of the Seanad. As I have always said, someone wanting true power, who is not one of the very few who gets to be Taoiseach or a Minister having the benefit of using two tools in Parliament - the Dáil and Seanad - and who cannot make it to become Secretary General of a Department, should become a county manager. As anyone who has served on a local authority knows, the county managers are the people who are in complete command of local authorities. Having vandalised the local authorities, the Government is now proceeding to vandalise the Constitution and the Oireachtas by getting rid of one third of it.

No Member of this or any previous Seanad, even those who are Ministers and Government Deputies, although they might not like to say it in public, would not be avid enthusiasts for and promoters of not only Seanad reform but radical Seanad reform. Senator Leyden spoke about the many reports over the years - I believe there have been 12 - most notably the report by Mrs. Mary O'Rourke's group to which the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, contributed. Many of us made submissions to that group and the report had a broad welcome across the board. It was on the programme for Government in 2007 but it seemed to disappear and the wheels came off the economy subsequently.

Then there was the rush of blood to the head in October 2008 in Citywest preparing for the Fine Gael presidential dinner. As Senator Norris said earlier, we then saw the greatest example of a jaw drop from the then leader of the Fine Gael group in the Seanad, the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, when to her shock the leader of Fine Gael and now Taoiseach proposed abolishing the Seanad. In this game I can fully understand anyone playing the ball and I can even understand people playing the man, but why we must go and dig up the pitch is beyond me.

A Member on the Government side mentioned earlier today it is not the fault of any Senator that reform has not taken place over the years. However, blame lies almost exclusively with the Taoiseach of the day. Whether that was Seán Lemass, Eamon de Valera, Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey, Garret FitzGerald, John Bruton or the present Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, it is fundamentally wrong. Sadly, it is at a time when there is public apathy with politics because they see in reality we are living in a functional dictatorship with three or four people are in absolute command. The Whips impose and people vote through legislation. Regardless of whether it is on abortion, banks, social welfare or capital expenditure, that is the way it is. I know how it operates - I sat in the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party room shouting my head off for ten years only to get nowhere. Fine Gael Members are up in the same room now and they probably go in one after another asking Ministers and the Taoiseach to get certain things, but the reply is: "No, you won't. We're doing this and get in there and support it. If you don't like it, there's a queue outside the gate looking to take your place."